Texas Men Take Lead on NC State Thanks to Foster Brothers, Hobson

Texas' Jake Foster -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Texas Men Take Lead on NC State Thanks to Foster Brothers, Hobson

One of the top men’s college swimming programs in history is racing this weekend against an upstart powerhouse from the east coast that has placed fourth at five of the last six NCAA Championships, and after the first day, Texas leads NC State by just 10 points, 98 to 88. NC State shined early on, winning the first three swimming events, but the talent of the Longhorns quickly showed through, and the times were sizzling, even if no one reached the fastest times in the country as was the case in the Texas-NC State women’s meet.

NC State’s men opened up with a one-second win in the 200 medley relay. Aidan Hayes, Mason Hunter, Nyls Korstanje and David Curtiss finished in 1:22.73, just off Arizona State’s top-ranked time of 1:22.60 set last week. The Wolfpack posted this time without using Kacper Stokowski, the reigning national champion in the 100 back. The Texas team of Carson Foster, Will Chan, Caspar Corbeau and Danny Krueger placed second in 1:23.77, still a season-best result.

Texas went 1-2 in 3-meter diving with Nick Harris (424.43) and Noah Duperre (392.48), but immediately after, the Wolfpack’s Luke Miller took down Texas’ Luke Hobson in an exciting 200 freestyle showdown. Hobson, the U.S. National champion in the long course version of the event, led by six tenths at the halfway point and by more than a half-second with 50 yards to go, but Miller finished in 23.56 to get to the wall in 1:31.87, just ahead of Hobson’s 1:31.89. Arizona State’s Grant House is the only swimmer to eclipse those marks this year with his 1:31.51 last week.

The NC State momentum continued in the 100 butterfly with Korstanje winning in 45.83 ahead of Hayes (45.89) and Stokowski (46.20), but then Texas got a big 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke as Jake Foster swam a time of 51.85 and Corbeau took second in 52.26.

The very next event was a 1-2-3 finish for Texas with Carson Foster winning in 1:43.14 and Braden Vines (1:44.97) and Jake Foster (1:45.03) rounding out the top three for the Longhorns, but then NC State struck back with David Curtiss going 19.06 to win the 50 free in a tight finish ahead of teammate Noah Henderson (19.09) while Korstanje and Miller tied for third in 19.59.

Hobson took the win in the 500 free in 4:13.82 with David Johnston touching in 4:14.41 to make it a Texas 1-2, and then NC State got back on top with Stokowski holding off Carson Foster in the 200 back, 1:41.39 to 1:42.05.

Finally, the 400 free relay came down to five hundredths, with Texas getting the win in 2:49.15 and NC State’s top group finishing in 2:49.20. For the Longhorns, Krueger dove in for the anchor leg one tenth behind Miller, but he split 41.82 to pull off the triumph. Krueger needed every bit of that effort with Miller splitting 41.93. The Texas team also consisted of Peter Larson, Corbeau and Hobson while Curtiss, Henderson and Bartosz Piszczwicz swam for the Wolfpack.

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dscott

1 year ago

While the livestream was problematic, you could see and occasionally hear enough to realize it was something special for January duals, much like ASU’s Men’s efforts a week earlier. I’ve seen nothing about their prep, but I assume they are the same as was ASU, suited but not rested and presumably not shaved (if anyone knows, please post somewhere)

With that comparison in mind I scored the ASU Men’s swims from their Stanford meet against the NC State swims and, separately, against the Texas swims for their day one events (all were in the ASU/Stanford program except the 4×100, Which ASU swam against Cal. I plan to follow through with scoring tomorrow’s 2nd day events atains ASU’s 2nd day swims against Cal. It is way fun,

After today’s events, including the 3M Dive, the meet scores stand:

ASU 99 v NC State 86

ASU 104.5 v Texas 81.5

Looking forward to tomorrow.