Congratulations to the North Carolina Swimming Zone Team on winning the 2022 Southern Zone Age Group Championships held at the Tupelo Aquatic Center in Tupelo, MS on July 26- July 30, 2022.  This is the third win in a row for the NCS Team! NCS won in 2019, 2021, and 2022 (the meet was not held because of COVID in 2020). The North Carolina Squad scored 1206.5 points, easily outscoring second place Georgia team’s 820 points and third place Florida Swimming with 640.5. It was a dominating performance with all age groups contributing fast swims. Santi Alzate received the High Point award for 13-14 boys and there were many other incredible individual performances. See the Meet Results below for a summary of the results for NCS Zone Team athletes.

Thanks to head coach Jonathan Watson, team manager Amy Faulk, and the entire coaching staff and chaperones for their hard work and preparation! And thank you to all the members of the 2022 NCS Zone team for making this another successful and memorable zone trip and another outstanding meet!

Amy created the following videos for everyone to enjoy!

Tupelo Highlights

Day 1- Travel to Tupelo

Day 2- Fancy Like

Day 3 – NCS Take Your Mark

Day 4- Simply Swimming

Day 5- NCS Top Guns

Day 6- NCS Stars Shine Bright

2022 SZAG Champs Tupelo Highlights- NCS Champions

Google Folder of Photos

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vYSAkV0PLcyYJ3NTayJOKgyKyAERKw6T

TUPELO TIMES: NCS ZONE TEAM UPDATES

NCS MEET RESULTS

2022 ZONE MEET INFORMATION

2022 NCS ZONE TEAM ROSTER

Swimmers with NCS connections contributed to a medal count record for Team USA at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Budapest.

On the meet’s final day, Justin Ress (formerly with NC State and MOR) won the men’s 50m back, out-touching teammate Hunter Armstrong to win the gold medal. Erika Brown (formerly with SwimMAC) earned a bronze medal in the women’s 50m free. Ryan Held (formerly with NC State) added to his relay medal collection with a silver in the men’s 4×100 medley relay and Claire Curzan (TAC Titans) anchored the winning women’s 4×100 medley relay, earning her second relay gold. On Friday, another NCS swimmer, Katharine Berkoff (NC State) won silver in the women’s 50m back. Click here for complete meet results.

The final day’s haul brought the United States’ team-leading meet medal count to 45–17 of them gold–and set a new record for medals at a World Championships. The previous record of 38 pool medals–also by the United States and also in Budapest–came in 2017. 

Ryan Murphy, who’s been a member of the past four World teams, credits strong teamwork for this unparalleled feat. 

“It was an incredible eight days with this team,” said Murphy, who swam the opening backstroke leg of the silver-medal-winning 400 medley relay with teammates Nic Fink, Michael Andrew and Ryan Held. “I feel like we just put our heads down, handled business, and when we looked up at the end of the meet, it was, by at least one metric, our most successful team ever. 

“I think that’s something really special. That’s not one person. That’s not one performance. That’s a collective as a whole, and that comes down to people executing session after session, and that’s really hard to do over an eight-day meet.” 

How deep and dominant was the United States this year in Budapest? Not including relays, 26 different swimmers won medals. Second-place Australia won 17 total medals. 

On Saturday, Justin Ress and Hunter Armstrong started the final session with a bang, going 1-2 in the 50-meter backstroke. Originally disqualified, Ress and the United States appealed, and he was reinstated as the victor. 

Ress won in 24.12, while Armstrong was a close second in 24.14. Armstrong even donned the medal to Ress after the swim happened.

In the 1500m freestyle–an event he won last summer in Tokyo–Bobby Finke won silver, his second medal (gold in the 800 free) of the meet. 

He and the rest of the field chased gold medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy from start to finish – but Finke’s time of 14:36.70 set a new American record by almost three seconds. 

“In the beginning, I was just trying to keep up with him, but he just kept getting further and further ahead,” Finke said. “Hats off to Greg. I wasn’t able to run him down. He had a great race, and I’m really proud of him.”

In the last sprint of the meet, newlywed Erika Brown of the United States touched in 24.38 to tie for bronze with Australia’s Meg Harris. 

Brown’s medal marked the third-straight Worlds where a U.S. woman stood on the podium, following Simone Manuel’s bronze in 2017 and gold in 2019. 

“I was in shock,” Brown said of learning she won bronze. “I was really just trying to focus on having my own race and getting my hand on the wall. I can’t even explain how excited I was when I saw that. 

“I have gotten to swim on a lot of relays (at Worlds), and that really got me even more excited for the 50.”

Tokyo Olympians Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant also added to the United States’ medals Saturday with silver and bronze, respectively, in the women’s 400m individual medley. Grimes’ time of 4:32.67 was just eclipsed by fellow teenager Summer McIntosh (4:32.04) of Canada. 

Weyant, who won silver in this event on the first day of the Tokyo Olympics last summer, finished third in 4:36.00 despite the long wait to compete on the final day of the meet.  

“It was definitely a difficult feeling (having to wait),” she said. “I got to watch the meet for a good part of it, but I was ready to race today and was happy I walked away with a medal, especially against this field.”

Grimes, the silver medalist in the 1500 freestyle earlier this week, said she’s sees good things for herself and the United States in this event in the future.

“Last year, there were still some bumps in the road with that race (400 IM),” she said. “But I think this year, I’ve gotten a little bit stronger, and my coach and I have worked on my weaknesses, so it’s coming together really nicely. 

“I went in knowing my strengths and weaknesses. I went over everybody’s splits and kind of learned how they swam the race. I just knew that if I got to the breaststroke turning into the freestyle with them, then I could have a chance at a medal. I was just having a good time racing.”

The final two events of the meet– the men’s and women’s 400m medley relays–both finished in exciting fashion.

A strong favorite for gold, the U.S. men were out-touched by the Italian team – 3:27.51 to 3:27.79. Ryan Held, who won gold as a member of the 400 freestyle relay, made a furious dash over the final 50 meters but couldn’t catch the Italian swimmer. 

In the women’s final, despite swimming in lane 1, the U.S. women won their second relay (800 freestyle relay) of the meet by outpacing silver-medalist Australia. The United States won in 3:53.78. 

“We have crushed it this whole week,” said Regan Smith, who won the 100m backstroke earlier in the meet and started the United States off strong in the relay with teammates Lily King, Torri Huske and Claire Curzan. 

“I really just wanted to go out and do my best for Team USA on this relay, and I know these girls wanted to do the same. And I think we really did that, and we went out on a good note.”

This week, many of the world’s fastest swimmers will compete at the 2022 FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. The pool competition will take place June 18-25 followed by the open water events from June 27-30. 

NBC recently announced its broadcast schedule for the meet. Be sure to tune in using the information below. In addition to the below, morning prelims (beginning daily at 3 a.m. ET) and open water events will be streamed on fina.org. 

For more information on the U.S. athletes and storylines, head to www.usaswimming.org/2022Worlds.

The final night of racing wrapped up Saturday as 41 athletes who competed at the Phillips 66 International Team Trials were officially named to the 2022 FINA World Championships U.S. roster. The full roster can be viewed here. 

Special congratulations to current and former NCS athletes Katharine Berkoff (NC State), Erica Brown (formerly with SwimMAC), Claire Curzan (TAC Titans), Ryan Held (formerly with NC State), and Justin Ress (formerly with NC State and the Marlins of Raleigh) on earning a spot on the Team USA roster!

The roster features 41 names, 28 of whom will be making their first FINA World Championships (LCM) appearance. Four athletes—Michael Andrew, Claire Curzan, Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky—qualified in four individual events to lead the team, while Ledecky and Chase Kalisz became one of the select few swimmers to ever qualify for five FINA World Championships rosters.

The 2022 FINA World Championships will take place in Budapest, Hungary from June 18-25. This week’s competition also served as the qualifier for the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships roster and as part of the selection for the 2022 Mel Zajac Jr. Invitational. Both of these rosters will be released later. To view all international team selection procedures, results and more, visit https://www.usaswimming.org/event/2022/04/26/default-calendar/Phillips-66-International-Team-Trials.

The moment many American swim fans have been waiting for is nearly here: The 2022 Phillips 66 International Team Trials. 

The competition will take place April 26-30 in Greensboro, N.C., at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. The pre-scratch psych sheet has an unbelievably talented lineup, seeing 73 U.S. National Team members, 41 Olympians and 36 American record holders (across short course yards, short course meters and long course meters) on the slate. In total, nearly 450 athletes will test the Greensboro water in efforts to qualify for the U.S. roster at the 2022 FINA World Championships, Junior Pan Pacific Championships and/or Mel Zajac Jr. Invitational. 

Omega Results

Five Things to Watch at Phillips 66 International Team Trials

Broadcast Information for the 2022 Phillips 66 International Team Trials

The 2022 North Carolina Swimming Spring HOD will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center on Sunday, April 10th at 1:00 PM.  Only those attending the meeting will cast votes. There will not be a virtual option.

The HOD Meeting Schedule has been posted on the NCS website.

We will pre-register delegates to simplify the check-in process.

Please follow the step-by-step instructions below.

1. Please declare your club’s delegates to Barb Frith by Thursday, April 7th .
2. Please check the Delegate per Club Count List for the number of non-athlete delegates you are permitted to name for your club. Each club also may name one athlete delegate.
3. Send an email to Barb Frith at pfrith@mac.com and include:
   • Name for each non-athlete delegate who will be attending.
   • Name for your athlete delegate who will be attending.
4. This information is due to Barb no later than Thursday, April 7th.
5. PLEASE NOTE that all declared delegates must be USA Swimming members in good standing on April 10, 2022. Please check your club portal for any membership issues your delegates need to address before April 7th.
6. Delegates MAY NOT vote by proxy. Delegates must attend the HOD meeting on April 10th at 1:00 PM to cast their votes.

If you have any questions about the delegate registration process, please contact Barb at pfrith@mac.com prior to April 7th.