NC State Hosts UNC Friday, Travels To Duke Saturday In Double Meet Weekend

Courtesy: NC State Athletics

RALEIGH – The NC State men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams re-enter dual meet action this weekend with a pair of meets against its local rivals. The Wolfpack welcomes North Carolina to Raleigh on Friday, Jan. 15 and then makes the short trip to Durham to take on Duke on Saturday, Jan. 16.

Due to health and safety recommendations and current state guidelines, both meets are closed to the public. The events will each be streamed live on ACCNX.

HOME MEET INFO:

• Time: Diving at 4 PM, swimming at 5 PM
• Location: Willis R. Casey Aquatic Center
• Live results: available on MeetMobile
• WATCH

ROAD MEET INFO:

• Time: 11 AM (swimming only)
• Live results: available on MeetMobile
• WATCH

MEET NOTEBOOK:
• NC State’s Friday evening matchup marks its first home action of the season after swimming a dual meet and an invitational at UNC. Three of the Pack’s final four meets of the regular season will be contested inside the Casey Aquatic Center.
• Friday’s meet marks the second dual meet matchup of the season between the Wolfpack and the Tar Heels. NC State opened its season in Chapel Hill the weekend of Nov. 6-7 with a pair of victories over UNC. The Wolfpack women cruised to the 224-167 victory over the No. 18 Tar Heels on Friday, and the Pack men completed the sweep with a 212.5-201.5 win over the No. 24 Heels.
• NC State has swept its last six dual matchups against UNC. Neither team has lost to the Tar Heels since the 2014-15 campaign. The Pack men have won the last seven dual meets against the Tar Heels and are 8-2 against UNC under the leadership of head coach Braden Holloway.

PACK IN THE POLLS:
• NC State enters the second half of its season with both squads ranked in the national top 10. The Pack joins Virginia as the two ACC schools with both teams ranked in the top 10.
• No. 4 Wolfpack women: jumped up three spots in the latest poll to earn the second-highest ranking of any ACC women’s program behind the No. 2 Cavaliers.
• No 6 Wolfpack men: maintained spot as the highest-ranked ACC men’s program

RECORDS FALLING:
• Through its opening portion of the 2020-21 season, the Pack has seen two of its SCY program records broken by Wolfpack women.
• Katharine Berkoff took claim of the fastest 100-yard backstroke time in program history with a 50.40 swim at the UNC Invite in December. That mark was good for a first-place finish and was also an NCAA A cut.
• Berkoff also came within striking distance of breaking the 200-yard backstroke record (1:49.09) with her 1:50.20 mark at the UNC Invite.
• At that same meet, Kylee Alons improved her own program record in the 100-yard butterfly in the prelims (51.52) and went on to take home first place in the finals. She also still owns the record in the 200-yard butterfly, which she set during her freshman campaign.

BACK WITH THE PACK:
• The 2020 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but multiple NC State swimmers and divers had already qualified for postseason action. A program record-tying twelve women and seven men were set to compete at the national meet.
• This season, four of those men and nine of those women are back on the Wolfpack rosters.

Returning NCAA qualifiers in 2020-21 include:

• Zach Brown (200 butterfly)
• Ross Dant (500 freestyle, 1650 freestyle)
• Erge Gezmis (200 IM)
• Eric Knowles (500 free, 400 IM, 1650 free)
• Kylee Alons (50 free, 100 free, 100 fly)
• Katharine Berkoff (500 free, 100 bk, 200 bk)
• Olivia Calegan (50 free, 100 brst, 200 brst)
• Kay Foley (500 free, 1650 free)
• Sophie Hansson (200 IM, 100 brst, 200 brst)
• Danika Huizinga (200 back)
• Kate Moore (500 free, 400 IM, 200 back)
• Emma Muzzy (200 IM, 400 IM, 200 back)
• Julia Poole (200 IM, 400 IM, 200 brst)

• The Wolfpack women’s squad returns its top four scorers from last year’s second-place ACC Championship team – Alons (87 points), Moore (87 points), Hansson (84 points) and Muzzy (81 points).
• Each of the five women’s swimmers that won an individual ACC title in 2020 is back with the Wolfpack for this season. That includes junior captain Hansson, who was the only multi-individual event winner for the Wolfpack women and swept the breaststroke events at the 2020 ACC Championship meet.
• Overall, 18 members of the Pack who gained All-American status in at least one individual or relay event last season are back in Raleigh – 7 men and 11 women.