The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
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12 ■ THE WOLFPACKER Turns out that being on the cover of the May edition of The Wolfpacker magazine holding the trophy for men's swimming and diving's fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships with his three relay partners that joined him in winning the 4x100 freestyle relay national title will not be the highlight of rising junior swim- mer Ryan Held's year. Far from it. On Aug. 7, Held swam the third leg for the United States in the finals of the 4x100 freestyle relay at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He followed up arguably the all-time greatest Olympian in Michael Phelps, whose second leg gave the United States a strong lead over rivals France and Australia. Held did his part, and lived up to his last name, by holding the lead for anchor Nathan Adrian. Adrian took it home to deliver the gold medal, the United States' first in the event in either the Olympics or World Champi- onships since winning at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when anchor Jason Lezak furiously swam down his counterpart from France in the final strokes. Despite the presence of Phelps — who won his 19th career gold medal — on the podium, Held became the media sensation after he broke down in tears while the American flag was being raised and the anthem played. He was featured on NBC's "The Today Show" and "Nightly News" programs the following day. Held joked during a press conference from Rio that he tried to force himself to sleep around 2 a.m. "It was quite the struggle," Held said. "From my neck down, my body was exhausted. From my neck up, my mind was racing a thousand thoughts a minute. I had to wake up at the crack of dawn to take a bus for The Today Show. "It was rough, and I was running on fumes, but it was an ab- solute blast, being on national TV. I got to take a photo with Al Roker. That was pretty cool." Held was the ACC champion in the 50 and 100 freestyles, and earned All-America accolades in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles at the NCAA Championships in 2016. His best individual finish at nationals was fourth in the 100. In addition to the national title-winning relay, he also helped the 200 and 800 free relays fin- ish second at the NCAA Champi- onships. " W e ' r e s o proud of Ryan and his accom- plishment at the h i g h e s t s t a g e i n o u r s p o r t ," NC State swim- ming head coach Braden Holloway said. "You can't get any better. A gold medal is just unbelievable, and it couldn't have h a p p e n e d t o a better kid. "He's a team player every sin- gle day for NC State and Team USA, and we're s o e l a t e d f o r him." Held becomes the seventh NCSU athlete to win a gold medal, joining former swimmers Cullen Jones (twice), Steve Rerych (twice), David Fox and Duncan Goodhew, basketball player Kenny Carr and marathon runner Joan Benoit. Former women's basketball coach Kay Yow led the U.S. squad to a gold medal in 1984. Held was one of five NC State student-athletes competing at this year's Olympics. Rifle rising senior Lucas Kozeniesky fin- ished 21st in the 10m air rifle prelims. His score of 622.3 was the top American mark and three points shy of reaching the finals. Swimmer Simonas Bilis, who completed his Wolfpack career this past spring, had the 30th best time among the 59 swimmers in the prelims of the 100-meter freestyle. Bilis represented his native Lithuania. Rising senior Soren Dahl helped the Denmark 4x200 freestyle relay finish 13th in prelims. Rising junior Anton Ipsen, also from Denmark, finished 20th out of 50 swimmers it the prelims of the 400 free. He was also scheduled to compete in the 1,500, which began Aug. 12. — Matt Carter NC State Swimmer Ryan Held Wins Gold Medal At Summer Olympics TRACKING THE PACK Held swam the third leg in Team USA's gold-medal winning 4x100 freestyle relay. PHOTO COURTESY NC STATE MEDIA RELATIONS