Oct. 17, 2012
THE FLATS – Paced by Nico van Duijn and Brandon Makinson, Georgia Tech turned in a gutsy effort Wednesday night versus Georgia at the GT Aquatic Center. The Bulldogs pulled away late for a 161-133 men’s win, while UGA women won 176-115.
Van Duijn helped get the Jackets started on the right foot by teaming with Nicholas Colletti, Matthew Vaughan and Andrew Kosic to win the 200 medley relay. Van Duijn, who this past summer set the Swiss national record in both the 100 and 200 fly, won both those events Wednesday night.
“That was a tremendous effort by our men’s team and I’m really proud of how they battled tonight,” said head coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “Nico, Brandon and Andrew were a big part of our success, but that was a total team effort. We knew the men could mix it up with Georgia. We held the lead late, but just couldn’t close the door.”
Tech led 85-81 through 19 events, and later, thanks to van Duijn’s win in the 100 fly and Makinson’s 3-meter win, closed the `Dawgs advantage to just 132-126. But a sweep of the top three spots by UGA in the 200 IM sealed the victory, and the visitors finished it off with a thrilling 400 free relay in the final event.
For the second consecutive meet, Makinson won both springboard events and shattered his own record on the 3-meter board. The reigning ACC Diver of the Week re-broke his own record Saturday, and then smashed it today by 13 points with a winning score of 422.55. Makinson’s winning 1-meter score of 375.23 was .02 shy of his own school record. Senior Chris Khosravi was second in both events (271.05 and 333.68).
Van Duijn ran away with both butterfly events, winning the 200 fly by three second in 1:48.94, then coming back to take the 100 fly by two seconds in 48.45. Van Duijn’s sophomore classmate Kosic also enjoyed a strong meet by winning both the 50 free (20.63) and the 100 free (45.15), to go along with his swim on the 200 medley relay.
Senior Bo Hatchett put down a winning time of 51.77 in the 100 back, while the Yellow Jackets went 2-3-4-5 to pile up points in the 100 breast, paced by Vaughan’s second-place finish in 56.17. Vaughan entered the meet with the nation’s fifth-fastest 100 breast time of 55.83, set last Saturday.
Wednesday’s meet versus Georgia was a tall order for the women, have to battle a line-up full of Olympians, including five-time London gold medalist Allison Schmidt and another gold-medalist Shannon Vreeland.
“We knew this would be a tough opponent for our women’s team but we held our own,” said Hart. “Lexi (Weber) swam very strong and hung around with Schmitt in the 100 free, and Ashley (Hardy) gave up a big win in the 1-meter.
Weber (51.23) was second to Schmitt (50.85) in the 100 free, posted a second-place finish in the 50 free (23.66) and the senior finished third in the 200 free (1:50.94). She teamed with Erika Staskevicius, Hailey White and Kate Riley to take second in the 400 free relay (3:28.80).
Hardy won the 1-meter diving with a score of 293.18, while freshman Shannon Lumbra was third (273.38). The Jackets were second and third on the 3-meter board, with Lumbra taking second (302.85) and Hardy in third (290.33).
Sophomore Kate Woolbright claimed a second-place finish in the 1,000 free (10:23.22) and freshman Darelle Cowley put down a 200 breast time of 2:21.22 that was good for second place. In the 100 fly, sophomore Kate Brandus out-touched Vreeland at the wall in the 100 fly for a third-place finish in 57.34.
Each team is now 1-1 in the dual meet season, and the Jackets return to action Saturday, November 3 when they host Virginia Tech and Florida Gulf Coast in a double dual meet at the GT Aquatic Center at 11 a.m.
