A Couple Key Absences, Lots of Versatility, Highlight ACC Men’s Psych Sheets

2021 Men’s ACC Championships

• When: Diving: Wednesday, February 17th – Saturday, February 24th; Swimming: Wednesday, February 24th – Saturday, February 27th | Prelims: 11:00 am | Finals: 7:00 pm (EST) (Except Wednesday’s timed finals, which begin at 5:15 EST)
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, NC
• Format: 25 Yards/Short Course Yards (SCY)
• Championship Central: Here
• Championship Manual
• Live Results
• Psych Sheets (uncut)

The pre-cut ACC men’s psych sheets are out, and while most coaches still have to narrow down rosters to the allowable 18 swimmers, and many swimmers are entered in more than the three individual events they can swim, we can still glean a couple interesting pieces of information before the swimming portion of the meet begins next week.

First, at least two big potential scorers aren’t going to be competing, although neither one is too surprising. Louisville senior Daniel Sos hasn’t competed for the Cards at all this season, and he doesn’t appear on the psych sheet. Sos, a Hungarian national, scored 56 individual points or Louisville last year and 54 the year before, primarily as an IMer. Louisville has an international-heavy roster, but the rest of the big international names, like Haridi Sameh and Evgenii Somov, all appear to be entered. Still, Sos’ absence is a decent blow to a Louisville team that was supposed to have the most returning individual points of any team.

UNC, meanwhile, will be without senior Tyler Hill, who disappeared from the roster earlier this semester and isn’t entered for next week. Hill scored 28 points last year, but had a great showing at the UNC Invite two months go, setting lifetime bests in the 50 free, 100 free, 100 back, and 100 fly, and swimming backstroke on the Tar Heel medley relays. Those times gave him a projected 77 points for next week, and even if he slipped a bit from that, he was still a potential triple A-finalist, as well as a big part of the UNC relays.

Second, a few interesting event combinations are still possible, if not likely, for some of the stars.

Louisville senior Nick Albiero is entered in five events. He’s normally swum the 100 fly/back combo on Day 3, plus the 200 fly on Day 4, and done so quite successfully, winning both fly events and taking 3rd in the 100 back last year. He’s entered in those three, plus the 50 free (98th seed) and the 100 free (4th), although we’d expect him to stick to his normal individual event lineup and perhaps lead off Louisville’s free relays.

Similarily, Georgia Tech’s Caio Pumputis has been pretty dominant in the 200 IM, 100 breast, and 200 breast over the last few years, so expect to see him scratch out of the 100 fly, where he’s seeded 18th, on Day 3. Speaking of the 100 breast, the top five names on the psych list are seeded within 0.05s of each other. While some of those men have been faster prior to this year, it still looks like it’s shaping up to be one of the best races of the meet.

Virginia Tech junior Blake Manoff is entered in a whopping seven events: the 200 IM (10th), 50 free (60th), 100 fly (7th), 200 free (4th), 100 back (6th), 100 free (15th), and 200 fly (6th). Manoff is one of those guys who gets squeezed a bit in that he’s strong in both the 200 free and a stroke 100. The good news, though, is that it’s easier to swim something like the 100 fly and 200 free double at ACCs than it is at NCAAs, since the 400 IM occurs between those two events here, instead of being the first event in the session at NCAAs. Last year Manoff swam the 50 free, where he finished 49th in prelims, then took 4th in the 100 fly and 2nd in the 200 fly. Manoff is part of a strong Hokie junior class, which was the top scoring class, from any school, as last year’s ACC Champs.

Manoff’s teammate Carles Coll Marti is one of those relatively rare (although increasingly less-so) swimmers who excels both at breaststroke and the sprint freestyles. He’s entered in the 200 IM (2nd), 50 free (24th), 100 breast (11th), 100 free (6th), and 200 breast (3rd), and he’s probably likely to stick with the the fairly traditional route of the 200 IM and both breaststrokes.

NC State’s Kacper Stokowski, who transferred from Florida, is entered in the 50 free (55th), 100 fly (43rd), 100 back (47.46), 200 back (51st) 100 free (43rd). Stokowski didn’t compete until this semester, so don’t let those seeding fool you. He has lifetime bests of 44.90/1:41.31 in the backstrokes and 45.72 in the 100 fly, the three events he’s probably likely to swim here. Last year, NC State scored 114 points in the 100 fly, the most of any team in any one event.

Most of UVA’s entries were expected, although it’s worth noting that junior Justin Grender is entered in the 500 free (24th), 200 free (37th), 100 back (11th), and the 200 back (1st). Freshman year he swam the 50 free, where he finished 37th in prelims, but has a lifetime best of 20.01 from high school. Last year he went after the 200 free/100 back double, missing scoring in the 200 free. It’ll be interesting to see if he does swim the 500 free, where he’s seeded with his lifetime best of 4:24.34, also from high school. UVA had a few of its top swimmers completely miss scoring in a third event last year, something the Cavaliers probably need to fix if they are going to challenge NC State for the conference crown.

The diving portion of the ACC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships got underway this morning along with the Women’s Swimming & Diving meet, while the men’s swimming competition starts a week from today.