LumaLanes Performance of the Week: Ryan Held Helps NC State Down Texas

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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Last Friday, the NC State men delivered a big message to the rest of the teams in the NCAA, downing the defending national champion Texas Longhorns on their home turf in Austin. Helping lead the way was junior Ryan Held, who helped propel the Wolfpack to two key relay wins while also bringing in two individual events wins.

Watch The Performance of The Week Video

Ryan Held is probably best known for his role on United States’ 400 freestyle relay team in Rio de Janeiro this summer. Swimming with childhood heroes Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian, Held notably broke down in tears on the medal podium as the national anthem played.

The 21-year-old seems to be carrying that momentum into his latest NCAA season, providing a key backbone to NC State’s relays. Held started off the meet in dramatic fashion, diving in behind for the closing freestyle split of the opening medley relay but ripping an 18.85 split to pick up NC State’s first relay win of the meet. He did the same to close the meet, diving in to chase down gold medalist and NCAA champion Joseph Schooling en route to an 18.90 split that won the event by just four one-hundredths (1:18.86 to 1:18.90).

If that wasn’t enough, Held also brought in two individual wins for the Wolfpack, tackling the sprint double by taking the 50 (19.49) and 100 (43.10) freestyles. Those times rank him second in the country in both events, and should help him continue to contribute in a big way to a rapidly improving program. NC State is coming off a program best 4th place finish at the 2016 NCAA meet and could be a potential spoiler at the end of the year on the NCAA’s biggest stage.

Congratulations Ryan Held on earning Swimming World’s Performance of the Week!

Special Thanks to LumaLanes for sponsoring Swimming World’s Performance of the Week.

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