Wolfpack Elite Invitational, Night 3: Leah Shackley Breaks 1:50 in 200 Back as NC State Women, ASU Men Win
Leah Shackley set a best time in the 200 backstroke at 1:49.71 on the final day of the Wolfpack Elite GAC Invitational Saturday night.
Shackley’s time is her best and her first time under 1:50. It helped NC State score 1,769 points to win the women’s team competition, less than 100 points ahead of Arizona State’s 1,678. Virginia Tech (1,338), Duke (1,287) and Northwester (1,017.5) also scored 1,000 points.
On the men’s side, Arizona State nearly cracked 1,000 points to win with a score of 1,956.5. That bested the host Wolfpack, who scored 1,846. Virginia Tech was third in 1,352.5, followed by Arizona’s 1,028.
All the action from the final night in Greensboro:
Women’s 1,650 freestyle
Arizona State’s Alexa Reyna picked up her second win of the week with a time of 16:00.40 to prevail in the mile. It is an NCAA B cut. Reyna was well ahead of NC State’s Chase Travis, who went 16:13.83. Teammate Emma Hastings was a further 10 seconds back.
Men’s 1,650 freestyle
Owen Lloyd outdueled teammate Lance Norris for the win and added an A cut to boot, getting just .08 under the standard with a time of 14:37.23. He was 1.4 seconds up on Norris, who got second in 14:38.69. Lloyd was only two tenths up at the 1,400-yard mark.
Daniel Matheson of Arizona State finished third in 14:43.46. Will Gallant of NC State and ASU’s Reece Grady also broke 15 minutes.
Women’s 200 backstroke
Leah Shackley came into the invitational off a time of 1:50.81 early in her college career. The NC State freshman went a second slower in prelims, then sped up to 1:49.71 to win and secure an A cut at night. It betters her personal-best of 1:50.21 from Speedo Juniors last winter. Shackley’s time moves her from fifth in program history to third.
The owner of that program standard, Kennedy Noble, finished third in 1:51.22. Ahead of her was another fab freshman in Erika Pelaez, who finished second in 1:50.46. Pelaez moves into sixth place in program history.
Duke’s Ali Pfaff finished fourth, lowering nine tenths off her school record from 1:52.41 last spring to 1:51.55. Virginia Tech’s Carmen Weiler Sastre finished fifth in 1:52.02, the third-best time in program history. Caroline Bentz lowered the Arizona State record to 1:52.10 to sixth.
Men’s 200 backstroke
Daniel Diehl led the way in 1:40.37, chipping three tenths off his season-best time. He edged Will Meyers of Arizona, who went 1:41.15 in a relatively slow field, no one close to the NCAA A cut of 1:38.80. ASU’s Jono Adam led six 1:43s in the A final, all slower than Mario Molla Yanes going 1:42.99 to win the B final.
Women’s 100 freestyle
Virginia Tech picked up a win on the women’s side thanks to Emily Claesson, who went 48.33. That’s the fourth-fastest time in Hokies history. It’s shy of the 47.10 A cut.
Tatum Wall, the 50 free champ from Duke, finished second in 48.47. She had been .01 quicker than Claesson’s winning time in prelims to earn the top seed. NC State took the next two spots, with Lilly Christianson in 48.54 and Annabel Crush in 48.91. Northwestern teammates Nikki Venema and Lindsay Ervin tied for fifth in 49.00.
Men’s 100 freestyle
Jonny Kulow dropped a time of 40.97 to earn a spot at NCAAs and close in on the program record at Arizona State. The mark is held by Leon Marchand at 40.92. Kulow was the only 41 in prelims and the only 40-point in finals. Kulow went out in 19.53.
Jerry Fox was closest to him in 41.65, which is .31 off the A cut. NC State teammate Kaii Winkler finished third in 42.04, a hundredth ahead of Patrick Sammon of Arizona State. Fellow Sun Devil Tommy Palmer’s time of 42.25 in the B final would’ve beaten half the A final.
Women’s 200 breaststroke
Duke’s Kaelyn Gridley capped the breaststroke double by going 2:05.71, an NCAA A cut by .02 seconds and within .77 of her program record from NCAAs last year.
NC State’s Lisa Nystrand continued a strong week in the IMs by finishing second in 2:09.83. Arizona State’s Zoe Summar and Emma Gehlert followed.
Men’s 200 breaststroke
Carles Coll Marti clocked an A cut and got within four tenths of his Va Tech program mark with a time of 1:50.09. The Spanish international was 4.5 seconds quicker than in prelims in a tremendous final swim.
As was the case much of the day, the B final packed a bunch. Andy Dobrzanski struggled in the morning, finishing a baffling 18th, more than five seconds off his seed time. He got scratched into the B final, then responded by going 1:53.63 to beat all but Coll Marti.
Back in the A final, Cale Martter of Arizona State finished second in 1:54.31. Tavner Wisdom of Arizona was second in 1:55.04, .21 ahead of ASU’s Oscar Bilbao.
Women’s 200 butterfly
With many of the top swimmers opting for the 200 back, the 200 fly was light, no one within four seconds of the A cut and only five even getting B cuts at night. The best of the bunch was Duke’s Kyra Sommerstad, who went 1:57.17 to edge teammate Martina Peroni by .21 seconds. Peroni led by .06 at the midway point.
Caroline Sheble of NC State (1:57.73) and Sonia Vaishnani of ASU (1:57.81) also got under 1:58.
Men’s 200 butterfly
The men’s 200 fly had no such lack of speed, thanks to reining NCAA champion Ilya Kharun. The Canadian easily beat the field in 1:39.00, an NCAA A cut. His school record is 1:37.93 from NCAAs last year.
Arizona’s Haakon Naughton finished second in 1:40.55, his college best by more than a second and second in program history, .39 off the school record of Justin Wright from 2018. ASU’s Filip Senc-Samardzic went 1:42.08 to finish third, more than a second ahead of Youssef Ramadan in fourth.
Women’s 400 freestyle relay
NC State capped an outstanding meet by improving their A Cut in the 400 free relay in 3:12.66. Lily Christianson, Annabel Crush, Leah Shackley and Erika Pelaez won by a clear second, improving by a half-second over their in-season best. Pelaez’s 46.88 on the end was the standout.
Virginia Tech finished second in 3:13.75, .01 off the A standard. Carmen Weiler Sastre led off in 47.94, quicker than the time that second-led Emily Claesson (48.09) had used to win the 100 free and the quickest leg of the race.
Arizona State was fourth in 3:14.65 after Caroline Bentz led off in 48.16. Duke was fourth in 3:17.22, Tatum Wall going 48.22 on the opening leg to move into second place in program history and within .12 of the school record.
Men’s 400 freestyle relay
NC State finished up the meet with a healthy A cut of 2:47.28, 1.5 seconds under the standard. Kaii Winkler, Jerry Fox, Luke Miller and Sam Hoover comprised the squad. Winkler led off in 42.58, followed by three splits between 41.56 and 41.58. Only two other swimmers – including Daniel Diehl on NC State’s B squad – broke 42 seconds.
That doesn’t include Arizona State’s A squad, which was DQed despite four 41s.
Arizona picked up another A cut in 2:48.65, under the mark by a full second for second place. Ralph Daleiden Ciuferri, Tomas Lukminas (41.37), Hunter Ingram and Jadan Nabor got the job done there. Virginia Tech’s A squad – Youssef Ramadan, Carles Coll Marti, William Hayon, Brendan Whitfield – added an A cut in third in 2:49.68. All four legs were between 42.30 and 42.51.
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