NC State Wins First Conference Title Since 1992

Photo Courtesy: Kenneth Martin

ATLANTA – The NC State Wolfpack won its 25th ACC title tonight at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, but it’s been a long time coming as its the first win for NC State since 1992.

NC State’s Anton Ipsen kicked off the night by winning the 1650-yard free by nearly 10 seconds. He put together the top time with a 14:48.52, well ahead of Virginia Tech’s Jake Ores. Ores snared second overall in 14:57.58 as the only other sub-15:00 time of the event. Louisville’s Marcelo Acosta took third overall in 15:03.17.

NC State’s Hennessey Stuart followed up his ACC record of 1:39.73 from prelims with an even faster performance of 1:39.37 in the 200-yard back this evening for the ACC title.

Louisville’s Grigory Tarasevich chased down an NCAA A cut of his own with a second-place 1:40.86, while teammate Aaron Greene rounded out the top three in 1:41.38.

NC State’s Simonas Bilis smashed his conference record in the 100-yard free as he blasted right through the 42-second barrier. Bilis won in 41.94, lowering his own conference (42.19) and meet (42.25) records from last year.

He nearly beat the pool record of 41.75 set by William Copeland in 2008. A pool record at the vaunted Georgia Tech Aquatic Center, which has hosted an Olympics, is a pretty amazing accomplishment. Even coming close is a feat in itself.

Bilis was joined in the top four by teammates David Williams (42.77) and Ryan Held (42.79), who took third and fourth, while Georgia Tech’s Andrew Kosic secured an NCAA A cut with a second-place 42.45.

Bilis claimed the 50-100-200 freestyle sweep this week, leading NC State to an incredible team victory.

Louisville dominated the 200-yard breaststroke with a 1-2-3 sweep. Thomas Dahlia won in an NCAA A cut time of 1:53.51, just off Rob Holderness’ conference record of 1:53.13 from 2011 and Zach Stephen’s meet record of 1:53.34 from last year.

Addison Bray (1:54.60) and Carlos Claverie (1:54.80) completed the sweep for the Cardinals with second and third-place efforts.

Florida State’s Connor Knight edged NC State’s Christian McCurdy in the 200-yard fly, 1:41.66 to 1:42.00, as both posted NCAA A cuts. Knights downed McCurdy’s 2014 ACC and meet record of 1:41.72, and came within half-a-second of Hidemasa Sano’s pool record of 1:41.07 from 2008.

UNC’s Ben Colley rounded out the podium with a third-place time of 1:42.92.

Last week during the diving championships, Pitt’s Dom Giordano won the 10-meter event with 413.85 points, while Virginia’s JB Kolod took second with 405.25 points. Virginia Tech’s Thomas Shinholser picked up third with 370.00 points.

NC State put an exclamation point on its victory as Ryan Held (42.79), Simonas Bilis (41.38), Soeren Dahl (42.69) and David Williams (42.06) took down the ACC and meet record in the 400-yard free relay with a 2:48.92.

That performance beat the 2:49.50 ACC record set by NC State in 2014.

UNC (2:52.32) and Georgia Tech (2:52.47) also posted NCAA A cuts.

Team Scores

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2015 ACC Men’s Championships, Day Four – Results

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