Erika Pelaez and Leah Shackley attend North Carolina State University
The 2024-25 college season began with the NC State women’s team saying goodbye to two of last season’s three most valuable swimmers. Katherine Berkoff, who won three NCAA titles in the 100 backstroke, completed her fifth year of eligibility before winning an individual bronze medal and relay gold medal at the Paris Olympics, while Abby Ahrens completed her fifth year of eligibility. He chose to transfer to Texas to qualify.
Returning as the Wolfpack women’s NCAA individual scorers this season is Kennedy, who was runner-up in the 200-yard event at last year’s NCAA Championships and has two top-four finishes at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Just Noble and long-distance swimmer Emma Hastings.
Two freshmen who are attracting a lot of attention and who can blossom into stars right away will appear. This isn’t the first time in recent months that a North Carolina State freshman has turned potential into instant success. Daniel Diehl joined the program in January 2024, and within six months, he was sixth and ninth in the 200m IM. 200m free at the Olympic trials.
Leah Shackley — Photo by Peter H. Bick
Now, Erica Pelaez and Leah Shackley have arrived in Raleigh and their early returns have been great. North Carolina State’s opening two-game series was a two-day showdown with No. 1 ranked Arizona State, which won 222-131, with Pelaez and Shackley already two of the most valuable swimmers on the team. , at the national level last season, where each achieved results that earned them important points.
Pelaez started with a 23.48 backstroke split to lead the NC State 200-meter medley relay. Only two swimmers broke that time at last year’s NCAA Championships. She then won the 200 free in a time of 1:43.14, beating her personal best time of 1:44.91 from last December, just shy of the time she needed to qualify for last year’s NCAA A Finals. . She anchored North Carolina State’s 400-meter free relay in 46.76 seconds, faster than any other player on the Wolf Pack except for Berkoff, who swam all of last season.
The next day, Pelaez came from behind to win the 200-meter dash in 1:50.71. This time placed her sixth at the national level last year and beat her lifetime best by three-quarters of a second. Moreover, she beat Noble by a whopping 1.34 seconds. Her 100 free time of 47.98 points was just short of the score needed to score at the national level last year, and she finished the meet with a 21.63 point split in the 200 free relay, the last time any North Carolina State swimmer other than Birkhoff achieved it. This record was once again surpassed. year.
And yes, Pelaez was only the second-highest ranked player among the freshmen to join NC State’s program this year. Her college-bound counterpart won the National High School Swimmer of the Year award last season and won four gold medals at this year’s Junior Pan Pacific Championships.
In his collegiate debut, Shaklee didn’t match the time his teammates recorded in the 200-yard event, but he did record a time of 50.40 seconds in the 100 back, the 50-second time he set in February when he swam a national high school record. exceeded 43. Shaklee’s time also exceeded every performance in last year’s NCAA finals except for Berkoff, who left the team.
Shaklee also had solid performances in the butterfly, posting medley relay splits of 22.78 seconds and 51.00 seconds, as well as individual times of 51.47 seconds in the 100 yards and 1:55.25 in the 200 yards. Shaklee has a record time of 50.29 seconds in the 100-yard event, and is expected to continue to do well. When she was a high school senior, this time was faster than the times all but two would record at the NCAA Championships.
So much for the rebuilding years in the post-Birkhoff era. Add Noble to these two swimmers, and North Carolina State has three legitimate stars ready to score big points at the NCAA Championships. No, they won’t match the team’s runner-up finish in 2021, the high point of the Brayden Holloway era, but they’re more than ready to continue their top-10 streak that dates back to 2019.
After Berkoff set the table for what NC State’s women’s program can accomplish at the collegiate and international level, Shaklee and Pelaez are poised to take the Wolfpack even further.
