2018 ACC Men’s Champ: Day 3 Finals Live Recap — Stewart Drops 44.54 100 Back

2018 ACC MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 21st to Saturday, February 24th | Prelims 10:00am | Finals 6:00pm
• Where: Greensboro Aquatics Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: NC State Wolfpack (results) fix
• Psych Sheet: here
• Live Results: here
• Streaming: WatchESPN (subscription required)
• Championship Central: here

It was an exciting morning for the third day of the 2018 ACC championships, highlighted by NC State’s Coleman Stewart‘s 44.80 in the 100 back.  Stewart is also in the 100 fly, where teammate Ryan Held will be in lane four after a 45.28 this morning.  Another Wolfpack swimmer, Justin Ress, was the top seed in the 200 free, as NC State will look to extend its lead in the battle for team points.

Unlike yesterday, however, NC State will not be in lane four in every event.  UVA’s Brendan Casey set the pace this morning with a 3:43.22 in the 400 IM, although Anton Ipsen surely won’t let Casey (or anyone else) walk away with an easy victory.  UNC’s Michael McBryan, the top seed in the 100 breast, may not have to worry about any NC State swimmers tonight, but he’ll still have his hands full, as three other swimmers were within 0.13s of his time this morning.

Finally, we’ll see the 400 medley relay, where Louisville is the defending champion, but NC State will be using Ryan Held after keeping him out of the 200 medley relay.

100 FLY

NCAA A Cut: 45.49
NCAA B Cut: 48.29
2017 Invite Time: 46.10
Conference Record: Ryan Held, NC State, 44.79 (2017)
Meet Record: Ryan Held, NC State, 44.79 (2017)
Defending Champion:Ryan Held, NC State

1. Ryan Held, NC State, 44.96
2. Coleman Stewart, NC State, 45.11
3. Nicolas Albiero, Louisville, 45.60

Ryan Held looked to be clearly in control the whole way, but Coleman Stewart made it a race, appearing to close on Held over the final few strokes, but touching just behind Held, who won 44.96 to 45.11.  Held’s time is the 2nd-fastest in the NCAA so far this year, behind only Joseph Schooling’s 44.78 from last December’s Texas Invite.

Louisville freshman Nicolas Albiero repeated his third place finish from this morning, shaving a few tenths off his time to touch in 45.60.

Bryce Keblish and Zach Fong of Virginia, and Louisville’s Zach Harting were all under last year’s NCAA invite time, while NC State’s James Bretscher and Giovanni Izzo finished 7th and 8th.

Notre Dame’s Justin Plaschka probably already had his ticket punched to NCAAs with a 19.30 yesterday, but got it doubly punched with a 45.41 time to win the B heat, a time that would’ve placed him third in the A-final.

400 INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY

NCAA A Cut: 3:39.95
NCAA B Cut: 3:54.49
2017 Invite Time: 3:44.92
Conference Record: Gal Nevo, Georgia Tech, 3:38.00 (2009)
Meet Record: Robert Owen, Virginia Tech, 3:38.43 (2017)
Defending Champion: Robert Owen, Virginia Tech, 3:38.43

1. Anton Ipsen, NC State, 3:40.48
2. Etay Gurevich, Louisville, 3:41.30
3. Brendan Casey, Virginia, 3:41.94

Etay Gurevich rolled out to an early lead, but Brendan Casey reeled him in on the backstroke leg, and built almost a two second lead at the halfway point.

However, that lead evaporated quickly.  Gurevich outsplit Casey by over three seconds — 29.77 to 32.90 — on the first 50 of breaststroke, and Casey was never able to recover.

However, Anton Ipsen was still lurking.  Ipsen built speed over the course of the free leg, and by the time he came out of the final turn, he looked to have it in the bag.  Indeed, he closed in 25.13 to Gurevich’s 26.83 to win by almost a second, while Casey almost matched Ipsen’s time in the final 100 to secure a 3rd-place finish.

Seven of the eight men in the heat finished under last year’s NCAA invite time of 3:44.92.

Regardless of whether or not you include the already-contested platform diving results (technically event #15), Louisville is now solidly in 2nd place behind NC State.

200 FREESTYLE

NCAA A Cut: 1:32.54
NCAA B Cut: 1:37.99
2017 Invite Time: 1:34.20
Conference Record: Soren Dahl, NC State, 1:31.37 (2017)
Meet Record: Scot Robison, Virginia, 1:32.45 (2010)
Defending Champion: Soren Dahl, NC State

1. Justin Ress, NC State, 1:32.66
2. Luke Georgiadis, Virginia, 1:33.78
3. Andreas Vazaios, NC State, 1:34.11

Luke Georgiadis made a race of it, but Justin Ress brought it home with a final 50 split of 23.98 to secure NC State’s third victory in three events tonight, knocking over a second off of his time from prelims in the process.  Georgiadis hung on for 2nd, followed by Ress’s NC State teammate Andreas Vazaios.

Ress’s time ranks him as the 4th-fastest man in the NCAA this season, according to the USA Swimming database, although we know that Dean Farris just blasted a 1:31 at the Ivy League Championships, and we’ve got some other big names in Townley Haas and Blake Pieroni set to swim at their conference championships later this evening.

100 BREASTSTROKE

NCAA A Cut: 51.74
NCAA B Cut: 55.39
2017 Invite Time: 52.62
Conference Record: Brandon Fiala, Virginia Tech, 51.30 (2017)
Meet Record: Peter Kropp, Duke, 51.46 (2017)
Defending Champion: Brandon Fiala, Virginia Tech

1. Evgenii Somov, Louisville, 52.18
2. Carlos Claverie, Louisville, 52.69
3. Michael McBryan, 52.70

The first non-Wolfpack individual win of the meet was quite a race between two Louisville swimmers.  Evgenii Somov and Carlos Claverie both touched at exactly 24.64 at the halfway point, but the freshman outsplit the senior by just over half a second on the back half to win 52.18 to 52.69.  Claverie’s time was exactly same as his time from prelims this morning.

Somov’s time puts him 6th in the NCAA this season, pending results from the other conference meets tonight.

UNC’s Michael McBryan was just off his time from this morning, which was the top time in prelims, to take 3rd at 52.70.

Somov was the only swimmer tonight under the time it took to get a NCAA invite last year, with 4th-8th finishing between 52.98 and 53.42.  NC State swimmer Jacob Molacek‘s time of 52.88 from the B-final would have finished 4th in the A-final, just ahead of Virginia’s Keefer Barnum.

100 BACKSTROKE

NCAA A Cut: 45.25
NCAA B Cut: 48.49
2017 Invite Time: 46.28
Conference Record: Coleman Stewart, NC State, 44.80 (2017)
Meet Record: Coleman Stewart, NC State, 44.80 (2017)
Defending Champion: Grigory Tarasevich, Louisville

1. Coleman Stewart, NC State, 44.54
2. Nicolas Albiero, Louisville, 45.44
3. Joe Clark, Virginia, 45.54

Coleman Stewart continued to rock this meet, looking strong all the way this event, his second of the night, and dropping a 44.54, which moves him up to 5th all-time in the event.  It also breaks the conference and meet records Stewart set this morning in prelims.

Louisville’s Albiero was also swimming his second event of the night, but seemed to have plenty in the tank as well, as he closed in 23.30 to pass Virginia’s Joe Clark and take 2nd place.

Noah Henlsey of NC State shaved a few tenths off of his prelims time to also dip under last year’s invite time, touching in 46.14

Scoring Update (including platform diving):

1. NC State – 957
2. Louisville – 770.5
3. Florida State – 592.5
4. Notre Dame – 588
5. Virginia – 550.5
6. Virginia Tech – 524.5
7. Duke – 445
8. UNC – 420
9. Georgia Tech – 258
10. Pittsburgh – 197
11. Miami – 94
12. Boston College – 70

400 Medley Relay

NCAA A Cut: 3:07.46
NCAA B But: 3:08.95
Conference Record: Louisville, 3:03.96, 2017
Meet Record: Louisville, 3:04.44, 2017
Defending Champion: Louisville

1. NC State, 3:04.24
2. Louisville, 3:05.55
3. Virginia, 3:05.57

NC State arguably didn’t even trot out their strongest lineup, and still took down the meet record.  The Wolfpack opted to not make Coleman Stewart swim what would’v been his third event of the the night, and instead went with Andreas Vazaios, whose 45.63 leadoff split was over a second slower than Stewart’s winning time on the 100 back earlier tonight.

Louisville led off with Nicolas Albiero, who had the fastest split in the field with a 45.42 despite it being his third swim of the night.  NC State remained in 2nd as 100 breast champ Evengii Somov outsplit Jacob Molacek 51.92 to 52.27.  Held quickly erased the deficit with a 44.92 fly split, and Justin Ress brought it hime in 41.92 for a Wolfpack victory.

Louisville nearly missed out on 2nd place after a strong 45.03 fly leg by Bryce Keblish moved Virginia into 2nd, but Andrej Barna dropped a 41.68 anchor leg to Ryan Baker‘s 42.29, to give the Cardinal 2nd place by just 0.02s.

The top three schools were all under the NCAA ‘A’ standard, and Notre Dame picked up a ‘B’ cut with a 3:08.32, thanks  strong back half efforts by Justin Plaschka and Daniel Speers.

Scoring Through Day 3 (including platform diving):

1. NC State – 1021
2. Louisville – 826.5
3. Florida State – 642.5
4. Notre Dame – 640
5. Virginia – 604.5
6. Virginia Tech – 564.5
7. Duke – 489
8. UNC – 466
9. Georgia Tech – 306
10. Pittsburgh – 231
11. Boston College – 102
12. Miami – 94

NC State and Louisville looked to be pretty locked into 1st and 2nd place, as we expected.  Florida State and Notre Dame are almost neck and neck in the race for 3rd, but Virginia is certainly still in that conversation, especially if the Cavaliers have another strong morning tomorrow.  On the other end of the spectrum, Boston College finally overcame its relay DQ from last night to pass the diving-only Miami team and get out of the cellar.