2025 Raleigh Rumble Day 1: Leah Shackley Moves Up to 3rd in the Country in 100 Fly and 100 Back
The 2025 Raleigh Rumble kicked off on Friday with some fast swimming from all three teams. The first day of the meet saw a morning and evening session along with two time trial sessions and an Open Water event that was listed on the NC State website as "1,800ish".
Morning
Women
Friday morning opened with the prelims rounds of the 50 knockout races. NC State took the top spots in the prelims of all four 50 events. Tyler Driscoll won the 50 fly in a school record swim of 23.18. Leah Shackley won the 50 back in 23.66. Eneli Jefimova set a new school record time to win the 50 breast prelims at 26.30, and Cassie Moses won the 50 free in 22.11, just off her season best of 22.02.
Ohio State's Mila Nikanorov won the first scored event of the meet, the women's 1000 freestyle in 9:35.62. This swim was about five seconds over the 9:30.49 she swam this weekend last year against Penn State.
NC State's Erika Pelaez swam her 2nd event of the morning, after finishing 2nd in the first round of 50 fly knockouts, winning the women's 200 backstroke in 1:51.32, half a second off the 1:50.83 she swam at the Georgia Tech Dual Met Tournament last month.
Pelaez also won the 100 IM later in the session, touching in 54.08 to drop more than a second from her previous best of 55.55 from March of 2021. This swim was also a new school record time.
Eneli Jefimova picked up her 2nd "win" of the session for the Wolfpack with her 2:08.86 in the 200 breaststroke, touching nearly two seconds ahead of NC State teammate Lisa Nystrand's 2:10.50. Jefimova currently leads the nation with the 2:07.38 she swam at the DMT.
The final women's individual event of the first session was the women's 200 fly, which again saw a top two from the Wolfpack with Leah Shackley taking the win at 1:55.61. Her best time also comes from the DMT at 1:54.86, which is the 8th fastest time in the country this season. Kennedy Noble finished 2nd in 1:57.37.
The NC State women also won the 400 medley relay, touching in a school record of 3:28.89 with their four 50 of stroke winners. Shackley led off in 51.21 on the backstroke. Jefimova was 57.75 on breast, Pelaez swam 52.04 on the fly, and Moses split 47.89 on the freestyle to bring the team home.
Evening
The evening session started with the top four swimmers in each of the 50 stroke knockouts, and the NC State women had a huge showing, taking seven of the eight available spots in tomorrow's event finals including all four top seeds.
The women's 50 fly went to Tyler Driscoll (23.37) and Erika Pelaez (23.65) with Driscoll swimming just off her school record time from prelims.
Leah Shackley (23.51) and Kennedy Noble (24.25) took the top two spots in the 50 backstroke. Shackley was a little more than a tenth faster than the 23.66 she swam in the morning session to win.
Eneli Jefimova won the 50 breaststroke again, touching in 26.32, two hundredths slower than her morning time of 26.30. Ohio State's Maria Ramos Najji touched 2nd in 27.06 to be the only non-NC State athlete in tomorrow's knockout finals.
The 50 free top two times went to NC State's Cassie Moses (22.14) and Lily Christianson (22.28)
Pelaez won the first scored event of the session, the 400 IM, setting a new pool record time en route to her 4:08.42 win. This swim was a three second drop from her lifetime best of 4:11.53 from December of 2023 and is the 7th fastest time in the country this year.
She went on to finish 2nd in the 100 fly as well with her time of 52.66 coming in a little more than a second behind Leah Shackley's 51.19 for the win. This time from Shackley is the 3rd fastest time in the country this season, and is about a second off her lifetime best of 50.29.
Shackley also won the 100 back in 50.73 by more than a second. She will move up to 3rd in the country this season, coming in just ahead of Miranda Grana's 50.75.
Men
NC State and Virginia Tech opened Friday morning by splitting the top spots in the first round of 50 knockouts. For the Wolfpack, Aiden Hayes won the 50 fly in 20.83 and Quintin McCarty won the 50 back in 20.98, about seven tenths off his best of 20.24. The Hokies took the 50 breast with Eli Martin's 24.37 and the 50 free with Brendan Whitfield's 19.01.
The first scored men's event was the 200 backstroke which went to Daniel Diehl for the Wolfpack in 1:41.01, the 6th fastest time in the country this season, overtaking Rex Maurer's 1:41.03.
Eli Martin won his 2nd event of the session, taking the men's 200 breast in 1:54.84, coming in more than two seconds ahead of Ohio State's Tristan Jankovics who swam 1:57.37 for 2nd. Martin was less than two tenths over his lifetime best of 1:54.67 from last season's ACC Championships.
Kaii Winkler took the men's 100 IM for NC State in 48.03, a four second drop from the 52.60 mark he set in March of 2021. OSU's Matthew Klinge was 2nd in 48.75, coming in just one hundredth ahead of NC State's Daniel Diehl, who was 48.76.
The Wolfpack also took the final two individual events of the session with Aiden Hayes winning the 200 fly in 1:44.50, a little more than a second over his season best of 1:43.14 from the DMT, and Lance Norris taking the 1000 free in 8:46.60, three seconds off his best of 8:43.60 from January 2025.
