By Louis Fernandez, WRAL Sports

It’s nearly 8 a.m. in a hot Willis R. Casey Aquatic Center on NC State’s campus.

Former Wolfpack swimmers Bartosz Piszczorowicz and Kacper Stokowski have been in the cool pool for a while.

“We always motivate each other, every day we drive to practice every day, we make breakfast every day, we basically do everything together,” Stokowski said.

Stokowski goes with a breakfast sandwich. He says Piszczorowicz keeps it simple.

“Every day: scramble eggs. two piece of toast with prosciutto and a cheese,” Stokowski laughed.

The two grew up in Poland. Stokowski in Warsaw, the capital and Piszczorowicz in Kalisz. They competed together for the national and junior national team, eventually making their way to Raleigh. Stokowski just finished his fifth season at NC State. He’s a two-time NCAA champion, a 20-time All-American and a nine-time ACC Champion. Piszczorowicz transferred from Louisville for his junior and senior year from 2021-2023. He finished as a two-time All-American.

They’re roommates, they’re friends, but do they get sick of each other?

“Yes,” Stokowski laughed.

“Yes,” Piszczorowicz added, “but that’s healthy!”

Now the two are teammates in the Olympics for Poland. It’s It’s Stokowski’s second, part of the medley relay, and Piszczorowicz’s first, part of the freestyle relay.

It was a hard fought first.

“It was kind of devastating, and NC State just helped me a lot to get through all these sad emotions,” Piszczorowicz said.

He made the team for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but the day before they arrived in the Olympic Village, Piszczorowicz and five other swimmers were sent home all because of an administrative error by the Polish Swimming Federation.

“We found out at 2 a.m about that. No one went to bed, 20 people were calling people back at home,” Stokowski.

“I was that close to make this dream, and now, there is no way they’re going to send me out, everything is perfect,” Piszczorowicz said.

This all happened weeks before he joined the Wolfpack in 2021.

“It was like a rough couple of weeks, months, but (I’m) really thankful for Coach Braden (Holloway) and Coach Kevin (Happ), because they literally saved my swimming career I would say.”

Plenty of early mornings, plenty of laps in the pool to be thankful for.

“We’ll get to celebrate together, we’ll get to compete together on the biggest stage, so since we were 14 we were dreaming about it and right now the dream is becoming true,” Stokowski said.

Source: wralsportsfan.com