Sprinters Shine On First Day Of Tennessee vs. NC State Dual Meet

Tennessee vs. NC State

• October 14 to 15, 2022
• SCY (25 Yards)
• Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center, Knoxville, Tennessee
• Live Results
• Livestream Link

On Friday, NC State traveled to Knoxville to open up their 2022-23 NCAA season against Tennessee. It was a showdown between two of the top teams in the nation on both the men’s and women’s sides, as the #5 NC State women were against the #8 Tennessee women, and the #4 NC State men were against the #14 Tennessee men. At the end of day one, both NC State teams have a firm lead over Tennessee.

Both teams appeared to be unsuited at this meet.

Scores After Day 1:

Men: NC State 114, Tennessee 72

Women: NC State 106.5, Tennessee 79.5

Men’s Recap

Things kicked off with a extremely close battle in the 400 medley relay, with Kacper Stokowski (45.71), Giovanni Izzo (54.27), Nyls Korstanje (45.65), and Luke Miller (42.87) of NC State out-touching Tennessee’s Harrison Lierz, Jarel Dillard, Jordan Crooks, and Gui Caribe by 0.01 of a second in 3:08.50. Tennessee’s splits were not properly recorded due to a timing error, but Caribe appeared to have anchored in 41.96. And while we do not have official data on how many unsuited sub-42 splits there have been, they are extremely rare, and it’s extremely impressive that Caribe was able to record one in October as a freshman (if the timing is correct). Other sub-42 unsuited freestyle relay splits that have occurred in recent memory include Danny Krueger‘s 41.85 from the UVA-Texas dual meet last season and Nathan Adrian‘s 41.51 from 2011.

The decision to put Izzo, who is primarily a sprint freestyler/backstroker and IMer, on breastsroke was an interesting one. NC State is coming off of the loss of Rafael Kusto, their primary medley relay breaststroker from last year, and their use of Izzo this meet indicates that he could be a potential replacement for Kusto.

NC State’s winning time of 3:08.50 is a little over a second slower than Texas’s time of 3:07.25, which was set suited last week at the SMU Classic. Notably, Stokowski and Korstanje’s back and fly times respectively were fast than any of the back and fly medley relay splits from the SMU Classic. In addition,  Quintin McCarty and Aiden Hayes had formidable back and fly times of 46.80 and 46.83 respectively on NC State’s ‘B’ relay. McCarty was just 0.35 off his best 100 back time of 46.55.

The 1000 free was topped by NC State’s distance duo of Will Gallant and Ross Dant, who went 1-2 with times of 9:00.98 and 9:04.85 respectively. Gallant’s time is second in the nation for bona fide competition, with only Alec Enyeart‘s time of 8:50.62 from last week being faster.

Next up was the 50 free, where there was an extremely tight and fast race. Crooks (19.36), McCarty (19.44), NC State’s David Curtiss (19.45), and Korstanje (19.58) all dipped under 20 seconds, and were the top four by a significant margin. Crooks’ time ties his 19.36 set two weeks ago at a dual meet against UNC Wilmington as the second-fastest time set this year in bona fide competition, with only Cal’s Bjorn Seeliger having been faster at 19.29. McCarty, Curtiss, and Korstanje’s time rank fourth, fifth, and sixth respectively. McCarty, who is the top ranked freshman sprint freestyler in the nation, notably posted a time that was just 0.09 seconds off his best time of 19.33 set at 2021 Speedo Winter Juniors.

NC State’s Michael Cotter, the #3 ranked recruit in the high school class of 2022, made his individual NCAA debut in the 200 IM. He won by over a second with a 1:47.33, splitting 23.32/27.19/30.94/25.98. Cotter is one of the fastest freshmen 200 IMers in the country, holding a best time of 1:44.56. Noah Bowers then won the 200 fly in similar dominant fashion, going 1:45.67 and being the only swimmer in the field under 1:47.

Caribe backed up his relay split with an individual win in the 100 free, clocking a 43.36 and shaving 0.5 seconds off his previous best time of 43.86 set at the Tennessee vs. UNCW dual meet. He held off NC State’s Luke Miller and Sam Hoover, who went 43.64 and 43.97 respectively.

The 200 back was won by Stokowski, who was in fourth place at the 150-yard mark but then went down to drop a 25.00 final 50 to overtake everyone and post a final time of 1:44.53. His closing split was the fastest in the field by 1.61 seconds. NC State’s J.T. Ewing went 1:44.87 to take second behind his teammate, whereas Lierz went 1:45.08 for third.

Tennessee’s Bryden Hattie took the one-meter diving event, scoring 404.55 points and being 61.12 points clear of second place finisher Bayne Bennett of NC State.

In the 200 breast, Tennessee’s Jarel Dillard won with a time of 1:56.56, grabbing the third win of the day for the Volunteers in the last individual event.

To close things off, McCarty (19.57), Curtiss (19.05), Korstanje (19.37), and Hoover (19.55) won the 200 free relay for NC State in a time of 1:17.54. Finishing in second was Tennesse’s Crooks (19.37), Caribe (19.44), Scott Scanlon (19.98), and Aleksey Tarasenko (19.42), who combined for a 1:18.21. Both NC State and Tennessee were faster than Texas A&M’s winning time of 1:18.66 from the SMU Classic, which had been the fastest official time in the nation. Crooks’ leadoff split was just 0.01 seconds slower than his individual swim from earlier.

Notable absences from this meet were NC State’s Noah Henderson, Hunter Tapp, Owen Lloyd, and Mikey Moore, who are all NCAA qualifiers.

Women’s Recap

One notable swimmer not racing on the women’s side of the meet was Tennessee’s Julia Mrozinski. Although she has been seen training/on deck in various social media posts and Tennessee confirms that she will be competing this season, she has yet to swim in a meet, having missed the Tennessee vs. UNCW dual meet as well. Jasmine Rumley, Tennessee’s fastest sprint freestyler, is also not competing at this meet after also missing the UNCW meet.

Tennessee opened up the meet with a win in the 400 medley relay, as Josephine Fuller (52.79), Mona McSharry (58.77), Sara Stotler (53.84), and Brooklyn Douthwright (49.08) combined for a time of 3:34.48. NC State’s Katharine Berkoff (52.29), Andrea Podmanikova (59.96), Kylee Alons (51.67), and Abbey Arens (49.56) were actually faster at 3:33.48, but they were DQed. Berkoff’s 52.29 leadoff 100 back time would have been ranked second in the nation in NCAA competition behind Maggie MacNeil’s 51.10, but since her relay was DQed, it doesn’t count.

2022 1650 free SEC champion Kristen Stege of Tennessee won the 1000 free in a time of 9:49.34, although splits do not show up for her race. She is the third NCAA swimmer to break 9:50 this season, after Georgia Tech’s Deniz Ertan (9:43.62) and Georgia’s Abby McCulloh (9:46.48).

0.05 seconds separated McSharry and Alons in the 50 free, as they went times of 22.63 and 22.68 to finish first and second respectively. There was another close race in the 200 IM, where NC State’s Kennedy Noble went 1:59.01 to out-touch Fuller by 0.04 seconds. Noble is the #6 ranked swimmer in the high school class of 2022 and is one of the top freshman 200 IMers in the nation, holding a personal best of 1:56.60.

The three-meter diving event was won by Tennessee’s Tanisha Lucoe, who scored 333.75 total points.

Arens took the 200 fly in 1:56.87, clearing the field by over two seconds. She was close to her time of 1:56.20 from NCAAs last year, which she clocked to finish 30th overall. However, she holds a personal best of 1:54.11 from when she won the 2022 ACC title in the event. She’s the fourth-fastest performer in the nation this year in official NCAA competition, behind Texas’s Emma Sticklen (1:56.33), Michigan’s Katie Crom (1:56.79), and Arkansas’ Luciana Thomas (1:56.83).

In the 100 free, Berkoff put up a 49.35 to win, as her and teammate Abbey Webb (49.74) were the only two swimmers in the field under 50 seconds. Next, in the 200 back, three women dipped under 1:56 as NC State’s Emma Muzzy (1:55.46), Tennessee’s Regan Rathwell (1:55.47), and Fuller (1:55.95) went 1-2-3. Noble was not far behind the top three, finishing fourth in 1:56.04. Rathwell, a Canadian freshman who never swam short course yards prior to this NCAA season, dropped nearly four seconds from her best time of 1:59.17 from Tennessee’s dual agains UNCW. However, her long course best time of 2:09.54 converts to 1:52.73 in yards.

Podmanikova won the 200 breast, clocking a 2:10.93 to close out individual racing for the night. She joins USC’s Kaitlyn Dobler (2:10.07) and Isabelle Odgers (2:10.52), Michigan’s Letitia Sim (2:10.61), and Indiana’s Noelle Peplowski (2:10.87) as one of the few women who have been 2:10-point in the 200 breast this season so far.

NC State redeemed themselves following their medley relay by taking the 200 free relay, as Berkoff (22.97), Alons (22.00), Webb (22.62), and Arens (22.55) put up a 1:30.14. Interestingly enough, NC State’s ‘B’ relay of Meghan Donald (23.56), Annabel Crush (22.77), Sarah Watson (22.87), and Katherine Helms (23.21) clocked a 1:32.41, which was nearly two seconds faster than the time of 1:34.10 that Tennessee’s ‘A’ relay of Olivia Harper (23.53), Julia Burroughs (23.53), Abby Samansky (22.87) and Natalie Ungaretti (23.92) went.