Owen Lloyd won the ACC championship 1650-yard freestyle ACC title on Saturday, but his celebration only lasted minutes before the NCAA stripped him of his win over an obscure rule.
The N.C. State swimmer made a huge mistake with his over-exuberant celebration of his win, according to Fox News.
After being the first to touch the wall, Lloyd jumped up on the lane divider to celebrate. Even the second-place winner and teammate, Ross Dant, celebrated Lloyd’s win.
Despite Dant seemingly being fine with his teammate’s win, officials had other ideas.
Officials invoked Section 5 of the NCAA rulebook, an obscure rule, and said that Lloyd had “interfered with another swimmer” with Dant because he mounted the lane divider and draped his legs over into Dant’s lane.
Officials ruled that Dant was the winner of the race.
Despite being ruled the winner, Dant called the rule that gave him the win the “dumbest rule in swimming.”
“Owen beat me fair and square. He should be on that podium. He was excited. That was a huge win for him. He earned that, and that’s his emotion,” Dant said after the race. “That’s what we get in the sport of swimming when we do well. We train all year for a moment like that, and to have him disqualified is the dumbest thing ever. He works so hard every day.”
Dant added, “He is gonna be on the No. 1 trophy. I am not going to stand up there.”
NC State swimmer Owen Lloyd was disqualified after winning the 1650 free at yesterday’s ACC Championships.
— Cory Smith (@RCorySmith) February 26, 2024
Here’s Ross Dant, who finished second and was crowned the winner, sticking up for Lloyd. The violation for “interfering with another swimmer” is at the end. pic.twitter.com/Ix0cM9y1GJ
The incident brings new meaning to the saying, “Stay in your lane.”
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