Dylan Carter, Blake Pieroni, Ryan Held and NC State Off to Quick Start at NCAAs

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

NCAA DI editorial coverage is proudly sponsored by Adidas. Visit adidasswimming.com for more information on our sponsor. For all the latest coverage, check out our event coverage page. CLICK HERE FOR LIVE RESULTS

By David Rieder.

In one race and three heats, the men set the tone for an electric NCAA championships at the IUPUI Natatorium.

With only the 800 free relay on the program for night one in Indy, that left only 30 minutes for actual racing. Taking full advantage of that were USC’s Dylan Carter, Indiana’s Blake Pieroni and the NC State quartet led by Ryan Held, which broke a U.S. Open record on the way to the meet’s first victory.

Carter was in the pool for heat two as he led off Southern Cal’s 800 free relay. Ahead by almost a full bodylength off the start, he touched the wall in 1:30.95, joining Townley Haas as the only men to ever break the 1:31-barrier in the event.

The swim was Carter’s best time by more than a second, and after the race he explained what he thinks has changed for him in his return to the NCAA championships after a redshirt year.

“My first two years at USC, being completely honest, I wasn’t really serious, just messing around a lot, not training to my full potential,” he said. “Then I took last year off, and I came back a little more mature.”

But 1:30? Only one year ago, after all, Simon Burnett had held the U.S. Open record in the 200 free for a decade at 1:31.20.

“Swimming in general is just so crazy now,” Carter said. “That event in particular has a lot to do with Townley going fast last year and a lot of guys looking at that Simon Burnett record and being like, ‘Wow, that’s possible. It’s not an unbreakable record.’”

One heat later, Indiana’s Blake Pieroni did Carter eight hundredths better, blasting a 1:30.87 to take over the spot of second-fastest all-time.

“It’s crazy how fast it is!” Pieroni said. “I think it’s true what people say, once people break a barrier, it’s a lot easier to get to where that was. I think that’s true, but it also speaks to how fast it has gotten. I would never think there would be so many people in the 1:30s.

“I still expect Townley to drop a 1:29,” the Indiana junior added, foreshadowing what could happen in the individual 200 free in two days’ time.

But as impressive as were those two leadoff legs, the night belonged to the NC State Wolfpack. Ryan Held led off in 1:31.37, improving to sixth all-time in the 200 free. he combined with Andreas Vazaiois, Justin Ress and Soren Dahl to blast an NCAA-record time of 6:06.53, more than two seconds ahead of Texas and much faster than the previous top time in history, a 6:08.03 set by Texas last season.

Dahl went into the water with a two-second lead, and even with Haas anchoring for Texas, the Wolfpack had no worries. Dahl validated that confidence, splitting 1:30.67, compared to Haas’ 1:30.42.

“I’m not nervous at all about Soren ever being the anchor,” Held said. “He’s always been in that position. He loves that position. He has that mentality, ‘I don’t care if I’m really hurting. I’m going to push to beat that guy next to me.’ If there’s some guy next to him, you can almost bet that Soren’s going to out-touch him.”

The win marked the Wolfpack’s second relay win under head coach Braden Holloway after capturing the 400 free relay to conclude last year’s championships. But at that point, the team was swimming simply for pride, with fourth place already clinched. Now, going into the meet’s first full day, the Wolfpack have momentum.

For Held, the win meant validation and revenge.

Coming into the meet, they were still saying, ‘NC State is the underdog.’ Even though we have a national title [from the 400 free relay in 2016], and we’re up there, we’re still the underdog. This is going to catapult us into the realm of being those teams you always talk about,” he said.

“We just got gipped out of it last year [to Texas] and the year before that to Southern Cal. To finally prove that we can do a little bit more than sprint is cool for our university.”

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*

1 Comment

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Janet Johnson

7 years ago

Go Wolfpack!