Justin Ress, Nicolas Albiero Scorch Final Morning of Men’s ACC Champs
During the final morning of the men’s ACC championships in Greensboro, N.C., NC State junior Justin Ress and Louisville freshman Nicolas Albiero each threw down quick efforts to set themselves up as No. 1 seeds for finals. Meanwhile, Ress and his Wolfpack teammates continued their march towards a fourth straight conference crown.
First up, Notre Dame’s Rob Whitacre recorded a time of 1:40.17 for the top seed in the men’s 200 back. Finishing in second was NC State’s Coleman Stewart, fresh off a blistering 44.54 in the 100 back Friday evening, and Hennessy Stuart finished third for the Wolfpack in 1:40.91.
Virginia’s Robby Giller took fourth in 1:41.37, with teammate Brendan Casey (1:41.86) and Georgia Tech’s Colton Williamson (1:41.89) just behind. Notre Dame’s Jack Montesi (1:42.06) and Louisville’s Nikkos Sofianidis (1:42.24) also qualified in the top eight.
Event 17 Men 200 Yard Backstroke ================================================================== Conference: % 1:38.56 3/26/2016 Hennesey Stuart, NC State ACC Meet: & 1:39.05 3/2/2017 Grigory Tarasevich, Louisville-KY American: @ 1:35.73 3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California NCAA: $ 1:35.73 3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California U. S. Open: * 1:35.73 3/26/2016 Ryan Murphy, California Pool Record: ^ 1:39.28 2/27/2016 Grigory Tarasevich, LOU-KY 1:39.66 A 1:41.74 IV17 Invited to 2017 NCAA 1:46.39 B Name Year School Seed Prelims ================================================================== === Preliminaries === 1 Whitacre, Rober SR ND 1:41.40 1:40.17 qIV17 r:+0.59 23.72 49.06 (25.34) 1:14.62 (25.56) 1:40.17 (25.55) 2 Stewart, Colema SO NC State 1:41.68 1:40.65 qIV17 r:+0.61 23.74 48.46 (24.72) 1:13.91 (25.45) 1:40.65 (26.74) 3 Stuart, Henness SR NC State 1:40.32 1:40.91 qIV17 r:+0.52 23.47 48.54 (25.07) 1:14.55 (26.01) 1:40.91 (26.36) 4 Giller, Robby FR Virginia 1:44.27 1:41.37 qIV17 r:+0.60 24.42 50.36 (25.94) 1:16.25 (25.89) 1:41.37 (25.12) 5 Casey, Brendan JR Virginia 1:42.90 1:41.86 qB r:+0.55 23.93 49.53 (25.60) 1:15.65 (26.12) 1:41.86 (26.21) 6 Williamson, Col JR GT 1:43.77 1:41.89 qB r:+0.63 24.26 49.86 (25.60) 1:15.73 (25.87) 1:41.89 (26.16) 7 Montesi, Jack SO ND 1:45.41 1:42.06 qB r:+0.56 23.97 49.25 (25.28) 1:15.60 (26.35) 1:42.06 (26.46) 8 Sofianidis, Nik FR Louisville 1:43.50 1:42.24 qB r:+0.61 24.03 49.87 (25.84) 1:16.07 (26.20) 1:42.24 (26.17)
Ress qualified first in the men’s 100 free with his time of 41.74. The winner of the 200 free Friday night, Ress led a trio of NC State swimmers in the top three spots as he was followed by Jacob Molacek (42.01) and Ryan Held (42.10). Held will be going for his third win of the meet after already capturing the 50 free and 100 fly.
There was a gap back to the rest of the top eight qualifiers, with Florida State’s Will Pisani leading the way in 42.73, ahead of Louisville’s Andrej Barna (42.77), NC State’s Giovanni Izzo (42.86), Notre Dame’s Daniel Speers (42.88) and Florida State’s Emir Muratovic (43.08).
Event 18 Men 100 Yard Freestyle ================================================================== Conference: % 41.18 2/27/2016 Simonas Bilis, NCSU-NC ACC Meet: & 41.61 3/2/2017 Ryan Held, NCSU-NC American: @ 40.00 3/25/2017 Caeleb Dressel, Florida NCAA: $ 40.00 3/25/2017 Caeleb Dressel, Florida U. S. Open: * 40.00 3/25/2017 Caeleb Dressel, Florida Pool Record: ^ 41.31 12/6/2014 Nathan Adrian, CAL-PC 42.11 A 42.76 IV17 Invited to 2017 NCAA 44.29 B Name Year School Seed Prelims ================================================================== === Preliminaries === 1 Ress, Justin JR NC State 42.40 41.74 qA r:+0.66 19.78 41.74 (21.96) 2 Molacek, Jacob JR NC State 42.71 42.01 qA r:+0.64 20.36 42.01 (21.65) 3 Held, Ryan SR NC State 42.45 42.10 qA r:+0.62 20.02 42.10 (22.08) 4 Pisani, Will JR Florida St 42.79 42.73 qIV17 r:+0.65 20.51 42.73 (22.22) 5 Barna, Andrej SO Louisville 43.53 42.77 qB r:+0.63 20.34 42.77 (22.43) 6 Izzo, Giovanni FR NC State 44.59 42.86 qB r:+0.63 20.45 42.86 (22.41) 7 Speers, Daniel JR ND 43.52 42.88 qB r:+0.64 20.43 42.88 (22.45) 8 Muratovic, Emir JR Florida St 43.11 43.08 qB r:+0.63 20.38 43.08 (22.70)
Georgia Tech should be poised for a strong showing in the 200 breast after Moises Loschi qualified first in 1:54.23, and he will be joined in the final by teammate Caio Pumputis, who qualified eighth in 1:55.68.
Virginia’s Matthew Otto qualified second, just behind Loschi in 1:54.57, and Louisville teammates Carlos Claverie (1:54.57 and Evgenii Somov (1:54.59) took third and fourth, respectively.
The final will also include UNC’s Michael McBryan (1:54.98), Virginia’s Keefer Barnum (1:55.08) and Duke’s Judd Howard (1:55.31).
Event 19 Men 200 Yard Breaststroke ================================================================== Conference: % 1:52.39 3/2/2017 Brandon Fiala, VT-VA ACC Meet: & 1:52.39 3/2/2017 Brandon Fiala, VT-VA American: @ 1:47.91 3/25/2017 Will Licon, Texas NCAA: $ 1:47.91 3/25/2017 Will Licon, Texas U. S. Open: * 1:47.91 3/25/2017 Will Licon, Texas Pool Record: ^ 1:52.87 2/27/2016 Brandon Fiala, VT-VA 1:52.94 A 1:54.54 IV17 Invited to 2017 NCAA 1:59.79 B Name Year School Seed Prelims ================================================================== === Preliminaries === 1 Loschi, Moises SR GT 1:54.48 1:54.23 qIV17 r:+0.63 26.19 54.98 (28.79) 1:24.39 (29.41) 1:54.23 (29.84) 2 Otto, Matthew FR Virginia 1:56.66 1:54.34 qIV17 r:+0.68 26.31 55.37 (29.06) 1:24.62 (29.25) 1:54.34 (29.72) 3 Claverie, Carlo SR Louisville 1:53.10 1:54.57 qB r:+0.75 25.70 54.69 (28.99) 1:24.45 (29.76) 1:54.57 (30.12) 4 Somov, Evgenii FR Louisville 1:59.79 1:54.59 qB r:+0.70 25.93 54.23 (28.30) 1:25.23 (31.00) 1:54.59 (29.36) 5 McBryan, Michae SR UNC 1:57.94 1:54.98 qB 26.61 55.29 (28.68) 1:25.02 (29.73) 1:54.98 (29.96) 6 Barnum, Keefer FR Virginia 1:59.16 1:55.08 qB r:+0.70 25.79 55.11 (29.32) 1:24.75 (29.64) 1:55.08 (30.33) 7 Howard, Judd JR Duke 1:57.73 1:55.31 qB r:+0.72 26.66 56.20 (29.54) 1:25.48 (29.28) 1:55.31 (29.83) 8 Pumputis, Caio FR GT 1:53.80 1:55.68 qB r:+0.71 26.55 56.24 (29.69) 1:26.13 (29.89) 1:55.68 (29.55)
Finally, Albiero rounded out the morning with a top-seeded effort of 1:41.61 in the 200 fly prelims. He will have plenty of challenges in the final, though, as NC State’s Andreas Vazaios qualified second in 1:41.69 and Virginia’s Ted Schubert was third in 1:42.00.
Schubert was disqualified in the 400 IM prelims Friday but ended up time trialing and swimming a time of 3:39.52, much faster than Anton Ipsen’s ACC title-winning time of 3:40.48.
Louisville’s Zach Harting (1:42.22) and NC State’s James Bretscher (1:42.61) qualified fourth and fifth, respectively, followed by Virginia’s Zach Fong (1:42.64), Georgia Tech’s Christian Ferraro (1:43.03) and Notre Dame’s Aaron Schultz (1:44.00).
Event 20 Men 200 Yard Butterfly ================================================================== Conference: % 1:40.77 3/26/2017 Andreas Vazaios, NCSU-NC ACC Meet: & 1:41.42 2/27/2016 Vazalos/McCurdy, NCSU-NC American: @ 1:37.35 3/25/2017 Jack Conger, Texas NCAA: $ 1:37.35 3/25/2017 Jack Conger, Texas U. S. Open: * 1:37.35 3/25/2017 Jack Conger, Texas Pool Record: ^ 1:41.42 2/27/2016 Christian McCurdy, NCSU-NC 1:41.44 A 1:43.09 IV17 Invited to 2017 NCAA 1:47.99 B Name Year School Seed Prelims ================================================================== === Preliminaries === 1 Albiero, Nicola FR Louisville 1:43.81 1:41.61 qIV17 r:+0.66 23.17 49.02 (25.85) 1:15.18 (26.16) 1:41.61 (26.43) 2 Vazaios, Andrea JR NC State 1:40.77 1:41.69 qIV17 r:+0.72 23.12 49.10 (25.98) 1:15.24 (26.14) 1:41.69 (26.45) 3 Schubert, Ted SO Virginia 1:44.02 1:42.00 qIV17 r:+0.66 24.01 50.03 (26.02) 1:15.89 (25.86) 1:42.00 (26.11) 4 Harting, Zach JR Louisville 1:44.51 1:42.22 qIV17 r:+0.68 23.18 49.51 (26.33) 1:15.68 (26.17) 1:42.22 (26.54) 5 Bretscher, Jame JR NC State 1:44.70 1:42.61 qIV17 r:+0.67 22.44 48.82 (26.38) 1:15.36 (26.54) 1:42.61 (27.25) 6 Fong, Zach JR Virginia 1:42.67 1:42.64 qIV17 r:+0.64 23.11 48.89 (25.78) 1:15.26 (26.37) 1:42.64 (27.38) 7 Ferraro, Christ FR GT 1:44.48 1:43.03 qIV17 r:+0.72 24.20 49.70 (25.50) 1:16.11 (26.41) 1:43.03 (26.92) 8 Schultz, Aaron SO ND 1:45.71 1:44.00 qB r:+0.72 23.55 49.77 (26.22) 1:16.75 (26.98) 1:44.00 (27.25)