ACC Weekly Preview: NC State Travels to Duke; Georgia Tech Hosts Notre Dame and Miami

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

The college swim season is starting to pick up with some more duel meets slated for this October weekend. As the temperatures outside begin to drop, the heat inside the pool begins to rise as teams are gearing up for their mid-season invites in November.

In Atlantic Coast Conference action, there are four conference matchups that will be focused on this coming weekend.

The meet of the week in the ACC has to be NC State at Duke on Saturday in Durham. The Wolfpack are ranked fourth on the men’s side and 11th on the women’s side in the CSCAA pre-season poll that came out last week.

NC State are heavy favorites over Duke on the men’s side, but the women’s matchup could be a little closer with the Blue Devils ranked 22nd in the pre-season poll. Duke also has a strong freshman class this season with Easop Lee and Melissa Pish leading the way. Duke also returns three swimmers who made the NCAA meet in 2018 in senior Madeline Hess and juniors Kylie Jordan and Alyssa Marsh.

The NC State women had nine swimmers at NCAA’s a year ago and eight of them return for more in the 2018-19 season. The Wolfpack are highlighted by senior Elise Haan, who is one of the best backstrokers in the nation returning this season. She was fourth in 2018 in the 100 back final and two swimmers ahead of her either graduated or went pro.

NC State is a big favorite on the women’s side, but Duke could swim inspired in its home pool.

In non-conference action, the Florida State Seminoles will leave the warm comfort of Tallahassee to travel to Minnesota to take on the Golden Gophers in a Big Ten vs. ACC matchup. The Seminoles had two freshmen last year qualify for the big dance on the women’s side and those two (Madeline Cohen and Elise Olsen) are back as sophomores this season.

Florida State also returns three men’s swimmers who made NCAA’s a year ago in senior Kanoa Kaleoaloha, senior William Pisani and junior Maxim Polianski. Kaleohala returns this year as one of the top 100 butterflyers in the country after his 45.28 last season at the American Short Course Championships.

Weekend Slate:

Friday:

Florida Gulf Coast, SCAD, Miami at Georgia Tech

Saturday:

(#4/11) NC State at (NR/22) Duke
Pittsburgh at (#15/10) Virginia
(#23/18) Notre Dame, Miami at Georgia Tech
(#20/25) Florida State at (#18/13) Minnesota
Northeastern, Maine at Boston College

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

Name*

Email*

2 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

David Schoenberg

5 years ago

On Saturday, Pittsburgh will be in Charlottesville to compete against the Virginia Cavaliers (Women #10/ Men #15). Diving is at 9am; swimming at noon.

Andy Ross

5 years ago

Reply to David Schoenberg

Thank you. I wonder why that was not listed on the ACC’s website. I probably shouldn’t rely on that schedule now that this was pointed out…