NC State Scratches 3 Top-10 Seeds in 100 Back at Men’s ACCs

2019 ACC MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS

• When: Wednesday, February 27th to Saturday, March 2nd | Prelims 10:00am | Finals 6:00pm
• Where: Greensboro Aquatics Center, Greensboro, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: NC State Wolfpack (results)
• Live Results: here
• Streaming: WatchESPN (subscription required)
• Psych Sheet
• Championship Central
• Day 3 Heat Sheets

NC State had 5 swimmers seeded in the top 10 of the men’s 100 backstroke coming into the 2019 ACC Championships, but have scratched out 3 of them before Friday’s prelims session.

Andreas Vazaios (3rd seed – 45.85), Justin Ress (9th seed – 47.02), and Giovanni Izzo (10th seed – 47.15) have all scratched the race. That shouldn’t hurt them too much in the team battle, though: among the teams best-poised to challenge them for the ACC title (and even at that it’s a long-shot), Virginia doesn’t have anyone seeded in the top 10 (their best entrant, at 11th, also scratched) while Louisville at best would get 3 into the A final (if Mitchell Whyte can repeat his electric time trial swim of 45.3). Coleman Stewart still enters the race as the top seed for NC State. He’s the defending NCAA and ACC Champion in the event.

Ress, meanwhile, continues to largely eschew the backstroke events collegiately, even though that’s where he’s had his most success nationally, including winning the US National title in the 50 and placing 3rd in the 100 last summer. He’ll instead focus on the 200 free as his only event on Friday.

Other Day 3 Scratches of Note:

• Zach Harting, Louisville, 100 fly (9th seed). He’ll focus on the 200 free instead, where he’s the 13th seed with a time of 1:35.92.
• Caio Pumputis, Georgia Tech, 400 IM (2nd seed). Georgia Tech’s’ star sophomore will instead race the 100 breaststroke, where he’s the 1st seed.
• Coleman Stewart, NC State, 200 free (1st seed). As mentioned above, he’s swimming the 100 back on Friday instead. Last year at NCAAs, he did a 100 fly/100 back double.
• Joseph Hampel, Louisville, 100 breast (1oth seed). Hampel has no other swims on Friday individually.