Held & Ress Win Gold in 400 Medley Relay

TAIPEI, Taiwan – The World University games ended the same way they began for Ryan Held and Justin Ress, as they both earned gold medals as part of the USA 400-meter medley relay team at the National Taiwan Sports University on Saturday.

Ress started things off for the US, finishing the backstroke split in a time of 53.44. Andrew Wilson followed with breaststroke, then Justin Lynch completed the butterfly. Held anchored the team with a 47.84 freestyle split, as they finished with an overall time of 3:33.27 seconds.

The 400 medley relay wasn’t Held’s only race on the day, as he also finished sixth in the final of the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.39

With only the men’s and women’s marathon remaining tomorrow, the USA sits atop the swimming medal tally and the Wolfpack swimmers played a significant role in getting them there. The Americans have 28 overall medals, including 11 gold, nine silver and eight bronze.

NC State will be bringing 10 medals back to Raleigh. Ress finished the games with gold medals in the 400 freestyle relay, 100 backstroke, 400 medley relay as well as silver in the 50 backstroke. Held also won gold in the 400 freestyle, 400 medley relay and 100 freestyle. Alexia Zevnik earned gold in the 400 freestyle relay for Canada, while also capturing silver in the 200 backstroke. Hannah Moore also won bronze in the 1500 freestyle.