The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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MAY/JUNE 2023 ■ 25 BY MATT CARTER here may not be a whole lot that Will Gallant and Aiden Hayes have in common, but there are at least a few simi- larities. They both were relatively late arriving to the sport of swimming. Each competes collegiately at NC State. And on March 25, they both became national champions. Aiden Hayes Meets Lofty Expectations Some may say that Hayes was born to swim. His father and father's sister and brother all swam collegiately. However, Hayes was more focused on baseball until he was about 11 years old. "When I got into swimming, it started off pretty casual," he admitted. Despite his family's connection to the sport, Hayes knew very little about swim- ming when he started. "My parents taught me how not to drown, and that was about it," he half- joked. Suffice to say, Hayes proved to be a quick learner. He soon started chasing down swimmers who were previously faster than him, and by the time he was 16, Hayes realized with more effort and focus he could be more than a "casual" swimmer. The affirmation came when college coaches were allowed to contact Hayes in the recruiting process. "It was like the floodgates were open- ing on that first day," he recalled. "I think on that very first day of recruiting, I had 170 phone calls, 200-some-odd texts and over 300 emails." Hayes' specialty was the butterfly, which he attributed to his natural body frame. In February 2021, months before arriving at NC State, he broke the national high school record for the 100 fly, a mark previously held by Joseph Schooling, who would go on to take the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly at the 2016 Olympic Games. That performance was one reason why Hayes was regarded by some as the top swimming recruit in the country in his class. Yet he never felt the pressure to live up to the lofty expectations. "Part of being a higher-level athlete, no matter what sport you're in, is learning to block that out and not care what other people think," he noted. As a rookie, Hayes was the 2022 ACC Men's Freshman of the Year and earned All-America honors in both the 100- and 200-yard butterfly events. At the 2023 NCAA Championships in Minneapolis, the sophomore from Nor- man, Okla., started strong with a sixth- place finish in the 100 fly, but he entered the last day of the meet with a chip on his shoulder. A year prior, Hayes had barely missed qualifying for the A finals in the 200 fly. In the morning prelims this year, Hayes swam next to defending national cham- pion Brendan Burns, a senior from Indi- ana. Burns touched ahead of him, but only by 0.05 seconds, and Hayes recalled, "I didn't need to go out there and absolutely exhaust myself." Hayes started the finals race in the style he is known for: getting out fast and try- ing to hold on. He was leading the field at 50 yards while swimming in lane 2, but at the midway mark, Burns in lane 6 had passed him. By the 150-yard mark, Cal sophomore Gabriel Jett in lane 4 had also passed Hayes to move into second. Then suddenly came a surge unchar- acteristic of Hayes, a late kick in which he swam the final 50 yards two-thirds of a second faster than any other racer. "Where did that happen? I mean, how in the world?" ESPN swimming analyst Rowdy Gaines exclaimed on the telecast. "I have never done that in my life," Hayes said. "You can kind of see where you are, and obviously there was a little bit of motivation from my teammates and people cheering. … I couldn't control where [Burns] was, but I had a little bit of energy left, so I might as well spend it." Hayes' hope is that he can be an Olym- pic qualifier in 2024, when the games head to Paris. However, he also has bigger goals in mind at NC State. "If you focus too much on the long term, people tend to get lost a little bit," Hayes noted. "So having something to invest in like an NCAA championship for NC State and ACC championships, I think that is the best thing for a lot of swim- mers." T NC State Relay Team Wins National Championship Junior Will Gallant and sophomore Aiden Hayes were not the only men's swimmers to excel for NC State at the NCAA Championships, which took place March 22-25 in Minneapolis. The Pack also won the meet's open- ing race, the 400-yard medley relay. Senior Kacper Stokowski (backstroke), senior Mason Hunter (breaststroke), senior Nyls Korstanje (butterfly) and sophomore David Curtiss (freestyle) helped NC State pull off a surprise title in a NCAA-record time of 1:20.67. Hayes (sixth), Korstanje (seventh) and Stokowski (eighth) all made the A finals in the 100 butterfly. Stokowski also came close to repeating as national champion in the 100 backstroke, but he was edged by Indiana senior Brendan Burns' pool-record time and finished second. Stokowski additionally finished sixth in the 200 backstroke. Senior Ross Dant, who was second to Gallant in the mile, also was seventh in the 500 free. Senior Noah Bowers finished sixth in the 200 butterfly won by Hayes. Hayes' classmate Arsenio Bustos made the A finals and finished sixth in the 200 IM. In other NC State relay performances, the 200 freestyle team was third and the 400 free and 400 medley teams each finished fourth. Overall, NC State finished in fifth place, just 10.5 points shy of third-place Texas. The future continues to look bright for NC State. The Pack has signed the No. 9 swimmer nationally in the 2023 class, according to SwimSwam.com, in Ohio native Hudson Williams. Williams is noted for being a versatile swimmer with some of the best times in his class in the 100 free. Potential backstroke specialist Chase Mueller from Colorado is ranked No.13 nationally by SwimSwam, while butterfly standout Mitchell Ledford and noted breaststroke specialist Will Heck, both Florida natives, checked in just outside the top 20. SwimSwam does not include internationals in its rankings, but Ksawery Masiuk from Poland is also expected to be a significant addition. He took home the bronze medal at the 2022 World Championship in the 50-meter backstroke. Although Masiuk is considered part of the 2023 class, he reportedly will delay enrollment until after the 2024 Olympics in Paris. — Matt Carter Hayes (left) was victorious in the 200-yard butterfly, while Gallant claimed his title in the 1,650-yard freestyle. The two individual champs helped NC State finish fifth as a team at nationals. PHOTO BY LARRY BLANKENSHIP MAY/JUNE 2023 ■ 25