2023 UNC Last Chance Meet (#2)
- March 3, 2023
- Kour Natatorium, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Results on Meet Mobile: “UNC Last Chance Meet”
While a portion of UNC’s best swimmers were halfway across the country earning NCAA Invites in Austin at the American Short Course Championships, the Tar Heels are also hosting a one-day Last Chance meet this weekend in Chapel Hill.
UNC head coach Mark Gangloff explains the split: “Our last chance was limited to a one day meet because UNC basketball host Duke on Sat so we couldn’t host a two day meet. Based on where our relays and individuals were standing, we needed a meet that we could get more swims in. It was a last minute call based on the needs of the program.”
This week’s meet is only for the men, because women’s NCAA invites are already out.
The stars of the prelims session were the NC State butterfly group. They had three guys all go under 45 seconds in prelims on Friday morning.
They already had four 44-second butterfliers (all ranked in the top 10 in the NCAA) from the ACC Championships, but they got a fifth in the heats, with one other improving his time. Junior Luke Miller swam 44.50 and senior Kacper Stokowski swam 44.68, both dropping almost half-a-second from their previous season and lifetime bests.
Miller moves up to a tie for 4th in the NCAA, while Stokowski now ranks 8th.
Top 11 Rankings, NCAA, Men’s 100 Yard Fly, 2022-2023 Season:
- Youssef Ramadan, Virginia Tech – 43.93
- Jordan Crooks, Tennessee – 44.04
- Josh Liendo, Florida – 44.11
- (TIE) Gal Cohen Groumi, Michigan/Luke Miller, NC State – 44.50
- (TIE) Aiden Hayes, NC State/Tomer Frankel, Indiana – 44.66
- Kacper Stokowski, NC State – 44.68
- Nyls Korstanje, NC State – 44.70
- Umit Gures, Harvard – 44.91
- Arsenio Bustos, NC State – 44.97
Nyls Korstanje was 3rd in 44.98, which was slower than his time from ACCs.
The rest of the most notable swims from prelims were likely Wolfpack swimmers trying to clear up relay swims ahead of the NCAA Championships. The supremely-versatile sophomore Arsenio Bustos swam 1:34.26 in the 200 free. That’s a new lifetime best for him by just over two seconds (beating a 1:36.31 from his senior year of high school).
There is some opportunity to compete for the final spot on NC State’s 800 free relays in March. They’ve got a lot of guys at 1:34s, but their current top 4 best flat-starts this season are:
- Luke Miller – 1:31.87
- Bartosz Piszczorowicz – 1:32.47
- Hunter Tapp – 1:33.45
- Noah Bowers – 1:33.67
With Sam Hoover not swimming at ACCs and going 1:34 at the Last Chance meet, Bustos is at least in the conversation for that race. The Wolfpack won the ACC title by seven-tenths over Louisville in 6:11.26.
Giovanni Izzo also swam a new season best of 52.39 in the 100 breaststroke. That improves his national ranking to about 45th, which won’t get a direct invite, but is moot because his 200 IM ranks him 7th in the NCAA and is an “A” cut.
Mason Hunter lead NC State with a 51.57 this season.
Braden is a sprint mastermind
Potential repeat of that legendary 100 fly the Longhorns had? If I remember correctly, 6-8 swimmers in the A final were from Texas somewhere 2016 to 2019.
It’s reminiscent, isn’t it? Although I doubt we’ll ever see that again with all the depth out there.
UT has the opposite problem this year, Caspar Corbeau swam 46.2 at American Short Course Championships in what was presumably a test run for 400 medley relay use swimming fly.
If he goes 45 low or faster tonight, the relay lineups may change../
Luke Miller might not even swim 1 fly because it’s on same day as an event (2 free) he can win
Stuckowski would also be doubling 1 back and 1 fly
Izzo also does 1 back, but I’ll take him doing 1 fly this year.
Korstanje and Hayes should probably A final and I’ll take 2 down for NCS.
2/2 is pretty amazing in such a deep event, but nothing will trump Tex putting 6 up in 2015 A final
Stokowski did the double at ACC’s with no issues.
They were on different days at ACCs – its a 5 day meet.
Is this the year of taking a sub 44 to qualify for A finals at NCAA’s in the 100 fly?
44.6-7. It’s never as fast as people expect after looking at the heat sheets.
more likely we see 44s get left out of the A final…but it does certainly seem like we are trending in that direction. Lucas not even swimming this year.
And three of the five weren’t shaved. Yikes!
NCS sprint depth (other than breaststroke lol) is insane