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Braden Holloway and his athletes from N.C. State had an emotional first session at the men’s NCAA Division I swimming and diving championships, dealing with what was believed to be a disqualification in the 200 freestyle relay after posting the fastest time of the event. Less than an hour later, that DQ was overturned, and the Wolfpack are now in position to win their first relay national title.
Holloway spoke with Swimming World’s Mike Stott about the event surrounding the DQ. “We seem to like to deal with drama at these meets,” he said, adding that last year’s disqualification in the same event was fire for this year’s performance. He said equipment failure was the cause of the initial disqualification, which the officials discovered during the appeal process and video review.
Before the DQ was removed, Holloway said his job was to help keep his athletes calm and in control of emotions and realize that it’s only one race in a three-day meet. “It’s not always the most fun thing to deal with,” he said, “but getting those guys back on track is the most important thing.”
Braden Holloway post-session video interview:
Holloway also spoke with Stott before the session started about the environment created at N.C. State each day to develop swimmers with the chance to challenge for titles at the NCAA championships.