It’s ring season in the NCAA as swimmers and divers collect their championship rings from the 2023 NCAA Championships. That includes the Wolfpack’s 200 medley squad of Kacper Stokowski, Mason Hunter, Nyls Korstanje, and David Curtiss, who were honored ahead of NC State’s meet against Georgia and Duke.
In honor of that, in this LIVEBARN Race of the Week we’re throwing it back to the first event of 2023 Men’s NCAAs: the 200 medley relay and NC State’s first national title in the event.
It was an incredible race to kick off the meet. The Wolfpack took down the NCAA and U.S. Open records in the event, scorching a 1:20.67 to better the standard–set by Florida in 2022–by .46 seconds.
NCAA Record Split Comparison
| FLORIDA, 2022 NCAAS | NC STATE, 2023 NCAAS |
| Adam Chaney – 20.19 | Kacper Stokowski – 20.36 |
| Dillon Hillis – 23.20 | Mason Hunter – 22.95 |
| Eric Friese – 19.36 | Nyls Korstanje – 19.15 |
| Will Davis – 18.38 | David Curtiss – 18.21 |
| 1:21.13 | 1:20.67 |
On the first half of the relay, Stokowski (20.36) and Hunter (22.95) kept the Wolfpack near the front of the field. They took control on the butterfly leg, thanks to Korstanje throwing down the 2nd fastest 50 butterfly split of all-time (19.15). On the anchor leg, Curtiss split 18.21–over half a second faster than in 2022–to keep the Wolfpack well ahead of charging teams like Florida and California.
There were plenty of interesting things happening in this race in addition to the NCAA record going down. Second-place Arizona State (1:21.07) were also under Florida’s old record. That was thanks in large part to Leon Marchand, who made a statement about the kind of meet he was going to have by throwing down the fastest 50 breaststroke split of all-time (22.27).Josh Liendo dropped an 18.03 freestyle leg.
On the whole, it was an incredibly fast field. The top six teams were under the American record, but each had at least one international swimmer. Additionally, five of the top seven performances in history were swum that night.
All-Time 200 Medley Relay Rankings (Performers)
- NC State, 1:20.67 – 2023 NCAA Championships
- Arizona State, 1:21.07 – 2023 NCAA Championships
- Florida, 1:21.13 – 2022 NCAA Championships
- California, 1:21.24 – 2023 NCAA Championships
- Texas, 1:21.36 – 2022 NCAA Championships
- Tennessee, 1:21.43 – 2023 SEC Championships
- Indiana, 1:21.52 – 2023 NCAA Championships
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ASU coming for this relay without a doubt- Kharun’s flat start 50 this week as well as his earlier relay splits pointing to a split in the ballpark of a 19.0 once shaved and tapered. Jonny Kulow, already within .1 of his NCAA 2 medley split at the UGA dual meet, as well as his Pan Ams performance pointing to some serious speed coming up. Dolan continues to show consistent sprint speed, and Marchand continues to do Marchand things. ASU will be knocking on the door of a sub 1:20 come NCAAs.
If Kharun went 19.6 flat start in practice, I sure hope he’d break 19 rested/shaved with a relay start.
NC State also lost a one year band-aid on their breaststroke hole in the form of Mason Hunter.
Hoover is looking credible so far!