In Spite of Relay DQ, Louisville Men Open ACC Championships on Fire

2020 ACC MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 26th to Saturday, February 29th Prelims 10:00 am | Finals 6:00 pm (1650 prelims Saturday at 4:00 pm)
• Where: Greensboro Aquatic Center, Greensboro, North Carolina (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: North Carolina State University (NC State) (29x, 5th-straight) (results)
• Streaming: ACC Network
  • Day 2 Finals
  • Day 3 Finals
  • Day 4 Finals
• Championship Central: Here
• Detailed Timeline: Here
• Psych Sheets: Here
• Live Results

The 2020 ACC Men’s Swimming Championships (diving happened last week) began in earnest on Wednesday in Greensboro with the men’s 200 medley relay. The Louisville men turned heads with their early swim that got them to the wall first, but wound up in a DQ when junior anchor Malis Deliyiannis jumped early by .08 seconds.

The team’s finishing time of 1:22.40 would have been the fastest in the country. In fact, even with a safe start, it would have been one of the 15 fastest relays in NCAA history. The team had a 1.73-second margin over the next-best relay in the race, NC State, but the early departure from their anchor wiped that away.

None-the-less, the Cardinals had the fastest split on each of the 4 legs in the relay (although their anchor would not quite have been the fastest with a clean start). With both NC State and Virginia heavily reliant on freshmen this year, this would be the season for the Cardinals to make a run at the ACC team title, although that DQ is going to leave them in a big hole to climb out of.

Overall, aside from the Cardinals, the opening relay was a little flat. Only one swimmer split sub-20 seconds on the butterfly leg, and only two swimmer (with legal starts) split sub 19 seconds on the 50 free, for example. As compared to the record-breaking excitement of last week’s women’s meet, this men’s meet will be more about jockeying for positions and the team title, based on early returns.

A few split standouts: Pitt’s Luke Smutny, a senior, led their 200 medley relay off in 21.63 – the fastest 50 back split in school history. Viginia Tech also got an 18.49 anchor from junior Thomas Hallock, the best legal split in the field, as they placed 5th. The Hokies were a breaststroke-leg-short of landing in the top 3, at least, as their other 3 legs in the relay were competitive.

NC State’s Coleman Stewart split a 20.83 on NC State’s 200 medley, which ranked him behind only Louisville’s Mitchell Whyte (20.82). Stewart’s split was slower than he was at last year’s NCAA Championship meet in 20.66, as well as behind what he split at ACCs last year – 20.75. Whyte, meanwhile, was only 21.00 at NCAAs last year, and didn’t swim on any relays at ACCs. His emergence as a sophomore allowing Louisville to move junior Nicolas Albiero to the butterfly leg makes this relay an NCAA Championship contender.

This also elevates Whyte to contender status in the 100 back with Stewart, who was 2nd at last year’s NCAA Championship meet in the event (and is the highest returning placer in the country this season).

NC State has won 6 of the last 7 ACC medley relays, but were about 1.7 slower this year than their winning time last season.

Fastest 200 Medley Relay Splits, 2020 Men’s ACC Championships:

Backstroke:

1. Mitchell Whyte, Louisville, So. – 20.82 (Relay DQ’ed, Clean Start)
2. Coleman Stewart, NC State, Sr. – 20.83
3. Griffin Alaniz, Florida State, Sr. – 21.13
4. Kyle Barone, Georgia Tech, So. – 21.23
5. Forest Webb, Virginia Tech, Fr. – 21.48

Breaststroke:

1. Evgenii Somov, Louisville, Jr. – 23.26 (Relay DQ’ed, Clean Start)
2. Keefer Barnum, Virginia, Jr. – 23.63
3. Caio Pumputis, Georgia Tech, Jr. – 23.77
4. Valdas Abaliksta, UNC, Jr. – 23.85
5. Izaak Bastian, Florida State, So. – 23.97

Butterfly:

1. Nicolas Albiero, Louisville, Jr. – 19.84 (Relay DQ’ed, Clean Start)
2. Blaise Vera, Pitt, Jr. – 20.03
3. Blake Manoff, Virginia Tech, So. – 20.21
4. Max McCusker, Florida State, So. – 20.24
5. Luke Sobolewski, NC State, Jr. – 20.38

Freestyle:

1. Thomas Hallock, Virginia Tech, Jr. – 18.49
2. Nyls Korstanje, NC State, So. – 18.62
3. Augustus Lamb, Virginia, Fr. – 19.08
4. Miles Williams, Duke, Sr. – 19.18
5. Jakub Ksiazek, Florida State, So. – 19.21

Fastest Splits, 800 Free Relays

Leadoffs:

1. Nicolas Albiero, Louisville, Jr. – 1:32.45
2. Petar Varjasi, Florida State, Fr. – 1:32.76
3. Sadler McKeen, Notre Dame, Jr. – 1:33.59
4. Blake Manoff, Virginia Tech, So. – 1:33.69
5. Eric Knowles, NC State, Jr. – 1:34.01

Rolling Starts:

1. Zach Yeadon, Notre Dame, Jr. – 1:32.53
2. Colton Paulson, Louisville, So. – 1:32.87
3. Coleman Stewart, NC State, Sr. – 1:33.06
4. Andrej Barna, Louisville, Jr. – 1:33.29
5. Lane Stone, Virginia Tech, Jr. – 1:33.36