Erika Pelaez Blasts 200 Back as NC State Pulls Away to Complete Invitational Sweep
The North Carolina State Wolfpack continued to wrack up wins at the team’s invitational in Greensboro Saturday, finishing off a dominant performance across the three days of racing. The women’s team won the meet with 1781.5 points, almost 200 clear of Auburn (1579.5) with Duke in third (1038). The men’s performance was more dominant, scoring 1765 points to surpass Auburn (1367) and Arizona (1037).
Star Wolfpack sophomores Erika Pelaez and Leah Shackley delivered standout efforts in the 200 backstroke, with both going under the 1:50-barrier. Pelaez was the surprise winner in 1:49.18, about a half-second clear of Shackley’s 1:49.67. Duke’s Ali Pfaff placed third (1:51.99). Pelaez also contributed to a dominant NC State win in the 400 freestyle relay, notching a 47.37 anchor split following legs from Cassie Moses, Lily Christianson and Lily King. The team clocked 3:11.45 to beat out Duke (3:15.30) and Auburn (3:15.36).
Moses came out on top in a tight 100 free final, clocking 47.81 to beat Auburn’s Lisa Klevanovich (47.82) by one hundredth. Duke’s Tatum Wall also broke 48 (47.98). NC State’s Teia Salvino placed first in the 200 IM in 1:58.15. Auburn’s Zoey Zeller was also under 2:00 with a second-place time of 1:58.70, and BYU’s Lucy Warnick took third (2:00.52).
The fastest time in the women’s 1650 free belonged to George Washington’s Ava Topolewski at 16:18.61 ahead Virginia Tech’s Bengisu Caymaz (16:22.78) and NC State’s Katherine Helms (16:26.72). Auburn pulled off a 1-2 finish in the 200 butterfly as Taylor Bacher won in 1:56.13 while Carissa Rinard edged Duke’s Martina Peroni for second, 1:57.91 to 1:57.95.
NC State’s Max Carlsen blasted a time of 14:44.52 to win the 1650 free by more than 7.5 seconds over teammate Lance Norris (14:52.16), with Matt Marsteiner completing the Wolfpack sweep (14:58.36). Another 1-2-3 finish followed in the 200 IM as Daniel Diehl clocked 1:42.49 ahead of teammates Ian Stutts (1:44.33) and Simon Bermudez (1:45.11).
An exceptionally tight final of the 100 free went to NC State’s Jerry Fox at the finish. Fox clocked 41.31 to beat out Arizona’s Tomas Lukminas (41.33) by two hundredths, with Kaii Winkler of the Wolfpack a further three hundredths adrift. Virginia Tech’s Brendan Whitfield (41.62) and NC State’s Hudson Williams (41.64) also had 41-second performances.
Once again, NC State was without peer in relay action. Williams led off in 41.57, quicker than his individual time from earlier in the session, and Fox split 41.03 on the second leg. Diehl’s mark was 41.94 before Winkler had the best time of the race overall at 40.62. NC State’s swimmers combined for a time of 2:45.16, leaving Auburn (2:49.24) and the NC State “B” team (2:49.33) well behind.
Auburn’s Abdalla Youssef Nasr recorded a win in the 200 fly with a time of 1:41.66, just ahead of Arizona’s Haakon Naughton (1:41.78). Joel Nace placed third (1:42.41) to make it a 2-3 finish for the Wildcats. Arizona then got a win from Alex Desangles in the 200 backstroke, his time of 1:39.11 beating the field by more than two-and-a-half seconds. NC State teammates Sasha Zheltiakov (1:41.63) and Gavin Keogh (1:42.24) took second and third, respectively.
