Tennessee Wins Nine Events, But The NC State Men and UNC Women Are In the Hunt

Tennessee had the speed at the top, winning all but one event, but the NC State men and North Carolina women had the depth to hang around through the first day of the 2014 Nike Cup Invitational.

Team Scoring after day one:

Men’s:

1. Tennessee: 483
2. NC State: 461
3. North Carolina: 427
4. U.S. Air Force Academy: 385
5. East Carolina: 256
6. U.S. Naval Academy: 251
7. Duke: 216
8. Old Dominion: 154
9. Michigan: 55

Women’s:

1. Tennessee: 572.5
2. North Carolina: 498
3. NC State: 433
4. Duke: 344.5
5. East Carolina: 256
6. Old Dominion: 203
7. Michigan: 91
8. James Madison: 40

Full results from day one are available here.

Michigan and James Madison sent only their divers.

The best race of the night was the Men’s 200 free relay A final, where Tennessee’s team of Chris Sadsad, Troy Tillman, Joshua Romany. and Sean Lehane just out touched NC State’s A relay, Simonas Bilas, Andreas Schiellerup, Ryan Held, and  David Williams beating them by .01 seconds, 1:19.29 to 1:19.30.

Troy Tillman had the fastest split for the Volunteers with a 19.36. Williams swam a 19.69 for NC State’s fastest split.

The  North Carolina A relay of Sam Lewis, Logan Heck, Nic Graesser, and Ben Bolley, took third in 1:19.89. The Air Force A relay of George Frank, Jordan Dahle, Michael Hannigan, and Ryan Dunne, took fourth in 1:20.07.

Tennessee also took home a victory on the women’s side of the relay. The Lady Vols A relay of Amy Lubawy, Faith Johnson, Harper Bruins, and Alex Cleveland, finished in 1:29.87, improving on their seed of 1:30.02. NC State was second again with the relay team of Lauren Poli, Ashlyn Koletic, Lotta Nevalainen, and Riki Bonnema, were just behind in 1:30.53.

Duke’s A relay of Leah Goldman, Jessica Sutherland, Chelsea Ye, and Maddie Rusch were third in 1:31.02, followed by the North Carolina team of Sarah Hitchens, Hanna Lincoln, Caroline baldwin, and Ally Hardesty in 1:31.89.

In the women’s 500 freestyle, Madeline Tegner of Tennessee dropped over three seconds from her swim in the morning to beat her teammate, Mary Griffith in another close race. Tenger was 4:46.45 in the morning and went 4:43.38 in finals. Griffith was seeded at 4:44.59, and swam a 4:43.43 in finals.

Rachel Muller was third in 4:47.19 for NC State, followed by Morgan Dickson of Tennessee in fourth in 4:47.88, adding time from the morning, where she went 4:45.73.

Verity Abel of Duke, in 4:50.31, Emma Nunn of North Carolina, in 4:50.95, Yesim Giresunlu of Old Dominion, in 4:52.51,  and Lizzie Devitt of Duke, in 4:54.82 rounded out the A final.

The men’s 500 freestyle saw another one-two finish for Tennessee and another Volunteer victory over NC State. Evan Pinion beat his teammate, Sam McHugh, 4:16.93 to 4:18.68. Anton Oerskov Ipsen of NC State was third in 4:18.70.

Navy and Air Force finished fourth and fifth, respectively, from Thomas Duval, 4:20.41, and Kevin Jackson, 4:21.10. UNC’s William DeForest was a distant sixth in 4:27.18.

Amanda Carner of Tennessee stole the show in the 200 IM, finishing in 1:58.74, dropping over a second from the 2:00.66 she went in prelims and winning in over a second. Leah Goldman was second for duke in 2:00.30, followed by Lauren Driscoll of Tennessee in 2:00.50.

Over a second’s difference separated the Tar Heels pair of Madison Burns and Catherine Munch from third place. Burns was 2:01.83 for fourth, Munch was 2:02.61, for fifth.

Rounding out the A final were Bailie Monahan of East Carolina, 2:02.77, Alexia Zevnik of NC State, 2:02.99, and Addison Bursch, also of NC State, in 2:04.32.

A Tennessee swimmer ran away with the A final in the men’s 200 IM as well. Tristan Slater, the only Tennessee swimmer in the A final, swam to a victory in 1:45.97, over a second ahead of Duke’s Bradley Cline, who was 1:47.09 for second.

NC State finished third, fifth, seventh, and eighth in the IM. Christian McCurdy was third in 1:47.33, Colin Ellington was fifth in 1:49.16, Soeren Dahl was seventh in 1:50.65, Hennessey Stuart was eighth in 1:50.93.

The Tennessee women continued to dominate in the 50 free. Faith Johnson swam to a victory with a 22.02, despite being seeded second. Riki Bonnema, the number one seed, swam 22.73 in prelims but finished second with a 22.37 for the Wolfpack.

Two other NC State swimmers Lauren Poli and Ashlyn Koletic were third and fourth in 22.72 and 22.76, respectively.

Harper Bruens of Tennessee and Maddie Rusch of Duke tied for fifth. Both women swam a 22.90 in the finals, although Rusch was the higher seed, having swum a 22.72 in the morning.

Alex Cleveland of Tennessee and Sarah Hitchens of North Carolina, were seventh and eighth in 23.06 and 23.08, respectively.

The men’s 50 free saw two swimmers break 20 seconds and NC State’s first win the meet. Simonas Billis, who swam 20.00 in prelims for the Wolf Pack, won the sprint with a 19.86, and also gave NC State their first win of the evening. Troy Tillman of Tennessee was 19.94 for second place.

Third went to NC State’s Andreas Schiellerup, who went 20.18, followed by East Carolina’s Nikola Simic, who swam 20.20. The pair were in a three way tie for fourth after prelims. Both men swam 20.34 in the morning session.

Ryan Dunne was fifth for Air Force in 20.22. UNC’s Sam Lewis was sixth in 20.15, Joshua Romany of Tennessee was the third person to swim 20.34 in prelims, but dropped to 20.39 in finals. Ryan Held rounded out A final for the Wolf Pack with a 20.41.

David Williams of NC State won the B final in 20.18, which would have tied for third in the A final.

In the final two events of the evening, the men’s and women’s 400 medley relays, both saw Tennessee win and NC State finish second.

On the men’s side, Sean Lehane leadoff for the Volunteers with a 47.49 in the 100 backstroke, followed by 52.55 from Peter Stevens in the breaststroke leg. Chris Sadsad was 48.35 on the butterfly leg, and Troy Tillman anchored with a 43.71. The Tennessee relay swam 3:12.10 on the way to the win.

NC State’s team of Schiellerup, 48.32, Derek Hren, 54.11, Christian McCurdy, 47.51, and Simonas Billas, 42.94, finished in 3:12.88.

The Air Force A relay team of Devon Davis, Michael Barnosky, Ryan Dunne, and Jordan Dahle finished third in 3:14.29. UNC’s A relay team of Nic Graesser, Kurt Wohlrab, Sam Lewis, and Logan Heck finished fourth in 3:14.96.

The women shook out in a similar way as the men. However, the Tennessee women blew out the rest of the field, finishing over five seconds ahead of NC State.

Tennessee got ahead on the first leg of the relay and never looked back.

Madison Hahn’s 53.55 backstroke gave Tennessee a lead of more than a second Over NC State’s Alexia Zevnik, who split 54.77.

From there, Molly Hannis took over with a 58.52 on the breaststroke, Anna DeMonte was 54.58 on the breaststroke, and Faith Johnson Anchored in 48.14 enroute to Tennessee’s 3:34.79.

The breaststroke proved to be the difference maker on the relay, as NC State’s Kayla Brumbaum did not have the speed to keep up with Hannis. Brumbaum split a 1:02.36. Ashlyn Koletic split a 53.60 in the fly for the Wolf Pack. Riki Bonnema was 49.11 on the anchor leg. The Wolf Pack relay finished in 3:39.84.

Duke’s A relay finished third in 3:41.42. UNC was fourth in 3:42.56.

Elissa Dawson won the women’s three meter diving for UNC with a score of 336.35. Sean Burston won the men’s one meter for UNC with a  342.50.