GREENSBORO, North Carolina, February 26. THE North Carolina State Wolfpack showed up for the first day of the Atlantic Coast Conference championships in a big way, scaring the NCAA record in the 200 medley relay.
Andreas Schiellerup (backstroke: 21.23), Ian Bishop (breaststroke: 23.71), Barrett Miesfeld (butterfly: 20.39) and David Williams (freestyle: 18.45) posted an overall time of 1:23.78 to become the first ACC school under the 1:24 barrier, and put them just .53 behind the NCAA and U.S. Open record of 1:23.25 set by Michigan last year at the NCAA championships. Since Schiellerup is Danish, the team is not eligible for the American record of 1:23.02 swum by the SwimMAC team last December. Notably, it’s a school record for NC State by a large margin, beating their 1:26.48 from last season. And it’s a conference meet record, breaking the 1:24.84 swum by Florida State last season.
Also notable of the swim is the use of Williams on the freestyle leg. Williams went into the meet as the fifth-fastest NC State swimmer in the event – fourth if you remove top-ranked Schiellerup – which means they possibly have a faster relay in the offing next month.
Florida State beat their meet record, posting a 1:24.72 for second place that will also be competitive next month. Virginia Tech was third with a 1:24.97. Virginia (1:24.98), Notre Dame (1:25.46) and North Carolina (1:25.80) also posted automatic NCAA qualifying times.
The Wolfpack followed up their stunning sprint relay with a 6:15.58 in the 800 free relay to sweep the events on opening day. The time just missed the meet record of 6:15.02 posted in 2009 by Virginia (a squad that included future Olympian Matt McLean). Virginia Tech claimed second with a 6:19.69, while Notre Dame claimed third with a 6:21.74. The top five all automatically qualified for NCAAs in the event, with Georgia Tech (6:23.68) and Virginia (6:23.84) placing fourth and fifth.
Results For: ACC men’s championships day 1
