The 2015 Men’s ACC Swimming & Diving Championships have come to a close, as the fourth and final night of competition has concluded from the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Tonight’s races continued the meet’s overall themes of record-breaking performances, NC State freestyle dominance and Louisville breaststroke prominence. Below are our 5 Big Things from Day 4, as well as the ACC Championships as a whole.
#1 NC State Take the 2015 ACC Championship Title
What else can be said about a team that just earned its 25th ACC title in league history? The team’s overall depth, freestyle prowess and relay domination were its key assets in beating would-be challengers such as Louisville, UNC and Virginia Tech into submission.
Tonight, the Wolfpack of NC State has won its first champion since 1992 by claiming first-place finishes in 10 of 21 events over the entire championships, including 4 out of the 5 relays. 22 medals were reaped by the team across the 4 days of competition, as was cap-stoned by the team’s ACC record tonight in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay.
Incredibly, by the end of the championship, NC State had won all 5 of the individual freestyle events, in addition to the 3 freestyle relays. In fact, NC State was the first institution to sweep the freestyle events since Virginia performed the same feat in 2002. NC State’s 8 golds were earned by Anton Ipsen (500 and 1650 free) Simonas Bilis (50 free, 100 free, 200 free), and the collective victories across the 200, 400 and 800 free relays.
#2 Louisville Makes an ACC Arrival Statement
Increasingly proving its stature within the ACC in the weeks leading up to this weekend’ championships, the University of Louisville Cardinals proved, without a doubt, that they are more than just an up-and-coming program; they, indeed, have already arrived.
The Cardinals’ biggest night came about on Friday, where the team started a point grabbing tear with junior Nolan Tesone’s thrd-place finish in the 400 IM. His time of 3:43.61 set a new school record and set the tone for the Louisville men for the entire evening. In the very next event, the 100 butterfly, Cardinal junior Pedro Coutinho blasted a 45.92 from lane 9 – talk about outside smoke – to grind his way to the top of the podium, surpassing favorite Connor Knight from FSU in the process. In light of this being Louisville’s first year in the ACC, with his title-winning swim, Coutinho can now claim to be the first male ACC champion in any sport.
The Cardinal streak continued on Friday night with senior Thomas Dahlia somewhat surprising the field with his 100 breaststroke title-winning swim. A Peter Kropp DQ bumped another Louisville senior, Addison Bray into the 3rd-place spot with his time of 53.16, merely a foreshadowing of the 200 breaststroke results to come on Saturday (see below).
As if things couldn’t have gotten any better for this ACC newcomer team, sophomore Grigory Tarasevich tore up the field in the 100 backstroke to earn the win in 46.21, beating two NC State big guns in the process (Andreas Schiellerup and Hennessey Stuart). The Cardinals would then conclude Friday night with a huge 400 medley relay win in 3:06.06, which set a new Louisville school record.
By the end of the championships, Louisville earned gold in 5 events and brought home a total of 16 pieces of hardware. That is the second highest number of medals among the teams. Yes, the Cardinals have set themselves up nicely for a solid NCAA showing.
#3 NC State’s Simonas Bilis: ACC Freestyle King
As the Wolfpack’s alpha, Simonas Bilis, earned 6 golds and 1 silver across 7 total events, the junior from Lithuania was awarded the 2015 ACC Championships Most Valuable Swimmer honor. This marks the first time an NC State swimmer has won the award since Cullen Jones in 2006.
Bilis utterly manhandled the freestyle events, taking the 50, 100 and 200 titles by vicious storm, with a new ACC record in the 100 distance. Bilais is the first swimmer in the ACC conference to sweep all three of these individual freestyle events since Scot Robinson (Virginia) completed the history-making task in 2010. Bilis was also a missile off the blocks in the team events, with a hightlight as lead-off in his team’s winning 200 free relay, clocking a new ACC record split for his 18.98 effort.
In addition, Bilis was instrumental in that 200 free relay ACC record, as well as the conference records and title-winning swims in the 400 and 800 free relays. No question, Bilis is a freestyle, relay and overall point magnet, deserving of most valuable swimmer at these championships.
#4 Louisville 200 Breaststroke Sweep
Senior Thomas Dahlia doubled up on his breaststroke wins by taking the 200 breaststroke title tonight in a time of 1:53.51, leading a trio of Cardinals in the top 3 spots on the podium in the event. Addison Bray stepped foot on the podium once again, this time in the 2nd-place position, as he touched behind teammate Dahlia in 1:54.60. He was immediately followed by Venezuelan freshman Carlos Claverie, who swam a 1:54.80 for 3rd, making it a 1-2-3 finish for the Cardinals. The 3 men represented the only swimmers to dip under the 1:55 mark of the field. After this huge point assault, Louisville moved into 2nd place behind NC State; a position they would not end up yielding.
A Louisville sweep of the breaststroke events is not exactly new territory, as the Cardinals accomplished the feat against both Cincinnati and Kentucky in-season. However, accomplishing this same feat on an overall conference scale, against the best breaststrokers from the ACC’s top programs truly says something significant about the work Coach Albiero has been doing down in Louisville.
#5 ACC Records Broken…and Broken….and Broken Again
Over the course of the entire meet, 8 new conference records were set across all of the teams, which simply points to the overall elevation of this conference in terms of speed and depth. As a team, ACC team title winner NC State was responsible for writing 6 of those 8 new records into the history books, with new marks in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle relays.
Bilis broke the 100 free conference mark with his stellar performance of 41.94 in the individual race, but, as mentioned, also clocked a new record in his 50 free lead-off from the 200 freestyle relay (18.98). A Wolfpack freshman also got in on the record-breaking action, as Hennessey Stuart topped the field tonight in his impressive 1:39.27 200 backstroke ACC record-setting performance.
NC State wasn’t the only program to re-write ACC records this weekend, however. Florida State’s Connor Knight raced his way to a new mark in the 200 fly, winning the title in 1:41.66. And, although Duke’s Peter Kropp was disqualified in the 100 breaststroke final, he was able to swim a record-breaking race in the morning prelims of that event, earning a new ACC conference cord of 52.17.
so bilis or bilas, lol :)))
I think if the ACC schools did start to split their programs with each having their own coaching staff then there would be increased talk of a 5 day ACC conference meet with men and women combined. Otherwise it would be too crazy to manage I would think.
I don’t think its happening soon from a budgeting standpoint.
UVA – don’t think things last long for Augie. I think he was a moderate risk from the start having limited head coaching experience.
I am missing where splitting programs would increase the likelihood of a five day conference meet. If the point about the budgets getting hit having two coaching staffs for swimming, I can see more the point sticking there. But we are talking about an ACC conference school, and a state school at that. The coaching salaries are paid as Virginia state employees, at least so far as UVa is concerned. And UVa is not hurting for operating budgets. It will come down to performance metrics, as it should. The real question is time. Is that time this year or in 1-2 years?
Best comment: Pitt, what UNC will look like in 20 years without a change
The change is right there in the same state:
Jeff Dugdale
One of hottest coaches in country, friends with Marsh and connections at MAC
Lots of other possibilities, but ironic when the D2 coach in your state is getting more press than the D1
NCSU – getting it done! Facility is limiting (shallow competition pool, no 10-meter, 50-meter pool is way too hot) and Raleigh lacks the allure of a college town. Lots of high schoolers aren’t set on technical/agricultural majors and a non-technical degree from NCSU doesn’t carry the weight of a similar degree from UNC, UVA, ND, GT, Duke. Amazing they have the sheer depth in scholarshipping to accommodate all those foreigners and out-of-state athletes – only Williams and Coetzer are in-state contributors. Great spread of talent across all the classes, solid recruits coming in the door this fall (including NC 2015 #1 male Justin Ress). All this without the #1 2014 NC male (Colin Ellington) and a former NC #1 male… Read more »
Facilities to some extent are over-rated. Unless you have the coaching, a superior facility can only do so much. Look at UConn in basketball. The campus is in the middle of nowhere and the facilities, while they’re OK, are certainly not at the top of the heap. For years, the coaching however has been phenomenal,and recruits want to go where they will get better and in the end win. NC State swimming has great coaching right now and recruits and their parents are taking notice. Not sure what happened with Ellington, he disappeared after the New Year, but Bonk will be swimming for the Wolfpack next season.
no comments on BC?
No initial comments on BC or Duke because it’s very difficult to judge from the outside without a complete understanding of funding and support. Nothing on ND because I haven’t watched them closely enough to be fair. BC is unfunded as far as I know – impossible to compete without some alternative draw. (Like Army/Navy or Ivy/Duke)
I wonder if the academic scandal at UNC has helped NC State’s recruiting.
NC State has a great reputation for undergraduate degrees with big starting salaries (especially engineering) which might help recruit swimmers who are typically higher achieving students athletes.
UVA brought in horrible coaches. Major downgrade from Mark.
Anyone is a downgrade from Mark. What a class act.
Horrible coach? Correct me if I’m wrong, but except for maybe the mile, I’m pretty sure that during UVA’s ACC title run, every school record at Arizona was faster than UVA’s.
ACC Swim – being a Division 1 college coach is a profession and a business. Apparently the anonymous sivves have leaked over and again that this staff inherited female angels and male infidels. Fact history as a guide there was nothing in a three decade run prior to 2013 in either the women’s or men’s program which suggests anything but brilliance in the pool and in the classroom at UVa. Among the internal or external factors affecting the men’s program is a pretty simple fact that this year the top two male recruits in the nation were Virginians and neither of those two young men considered UVa or applied or visited. Maybe you can tell us all why that is.
My theory, personally put into action, on why Virginia stars don’t visit or attend UVA is this: When one can get a full ride to many other out of state schools, with the opportunity to see new states and make new friends, they take it.
I was a Virginia HS star (went on to be an NCAA D1 All-American) that got full ride offers to many D1 schools, better than UVA. I didn’t visit or look at UVA because I wanted to get away from my high school community, spread my wings and fly on my own. As a HS, Virginia swimmer I swam many meets and camps at UVA. I was “tired” of that pool and location by… Read more »
NC State coach a year ago said I will win with sprints and relays…He did it and is making ACC swimming faster. Hats off to the The Pack’s win and the coaches vision.
This UVA staff is doing an awful job, period! Their recruits don’t appear to be on par with the rest of the conference and I honestly expect the same quick decline on the women’s side that we’ve seen on the men’s side. The difference is that the women had such a loaded roster compared to the rest of the ACC they couldn’t lose for the next few years. Well that time is up and now this UVA staff needs to prove they can get it done with ‘their’ rexeuits