Quintin McCarty, Leah Shackley Among Winners as NC State Leading Invite
The North Carolina State Wolfpack continue to fire off strong performances at the team’s annual midseason invitational in Greensboro. The women’s team won both relays contested Friday plus two individual events on the way to 1199.5 points, well ahead of Auburn (1084.5) with Duke in third (638). The men’s lead is even bigger, with 1140 point ssurpassing Auburn (925) and Arizona (699).
The Wolfpack’s Erika Pelaez, Eneli Jefimova, Leah Shackley and Cassie Moses combined for a dominant win in the 400 medley relay, coming in at 3:26.44 to win by more than four seconds over a Kaelyn Gridley-led Duke team (3:30.58) and Auburn (3:30.92). Shortly after, Shackley came close to dipping under 50 seconds in the 100 backstroke, stopping the clock at 50.09 to defeat Duke’s Ali Pfaff (51.06) and NC State teammate Kennedy Noble (51.60).
Katherine Helms scored a win for NC State in the 500 free, taking down George Washington’s Ava Topolewski (4:44.89) and Virginia Tech’s Kate Anderson (4:45.75). Helms then led off an NC State team also including Pelaez, Teia Salvino and Lily King in a dominant performance in the 800 free relay. The Wolfpack women clocked 7:05.16, nine seconds ahead of the field. Arizona finished second in 7:14.44, and Auburn placed third (7:18.35).
Gridley, the fourth-place finisher in the 200 breaststroke at last season’s NCAA Championships, dominated her best event in 2:05.25, quicker than she swam all of last season and just off her lifetime best of 2:04.94. Jefimova placed second in 2:07.15 with Auburn’s Zoey Zeller third (2:10.25). The 50 free went to Auburn’s Lisa Klevanovich in 21.66 ahead of NC State’s Lily Christianson (21.81) and Arizona’s Riley Botton (21.97).
NC State’s men took out the 400 medley relay in 3:01.81 behind a team of Hudson Williams, Arsen Kozhakhmetov, Kaii Winkler and Jerry Fox. Williams and Winkler hit 44-second splits on their respective legs while Fox came home in 40.93 for the team to finish in 3:01.81. Auburn came in second in 3:03.70 while Arizona took third in 3:04.97.
NC State swept the top-three spots in the men’s 500 free, with Max Carlsen winning in 4:14.79 while veteran Lance Norris edged Mikolaj Filipiak for second, 4:16.28 to 4:16.50. In the 50 free, Quintin McCarty blasted a time of 18.81 to take first for the Wolfpack, with Virginia Tech’s Brendan Whitfield also going sub-19 (18.94) and Winkler taking third (19.05).
Auburn’s Ivan Tarasov won the 100 back in 45.33, just ahead of NC State’s Aiden Hayes (45.45), while Daniel Diehl of the Wolfpack came in third (46.04). The fastest time of the night, however, belonged to Williams with his 44.49 relay leadoff. Virginia Tech’s Eli Martin finished first in the 200 breast in 1:52.53 ahead of Auburn’s Maston Ballew (1:53.89) and NC State’s Hudson Schuricht (1:54.73).
To conclude the night, Arizona secured the win in the 800 free relay. Tomas Lukminas led off in 1:32.16, with Ralph Daleiden, Ben Butler and Mason Hopper completing the team with a final mark of 6:15.57. NC State placed second in 6:22.37, and Auburn took third (6:25.59).