Nov. 18, 2011
ATLANTA – After day one of the Georgia Tech Invitational, the Georgia Tech men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams sit in fifth and third place respectively. The women’s team shined in the sprint events, setting a school record in the 200-Free Relay while five different swimmers recorded points in the 50-Free.
“I am very proud of the way that everyone swam today,” said head coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “We started things off with the 200-Free Relay school record and that set the tone for the rest of the night. We hope to keep things rolling into tomorrow.”
The Yellow Jackets started things off on the right foot when the women’s team set a school record in the 200-Free Relay posting a second place time of 1:32.51 nearly a half a second off of the school record time of 1:32.95 set last year at the ACC Championships. The foursome of Alexis Weber, Keren Siebner, Jessie Mason, and Kate Riley accomplished the feat to get the ball rolling for the Yellow Jackets.
The men’s 200-Free Relay team continued the success into their heat as Andrew Kosic, Nigel Plummer, Andrew Chetcuti and Eric Chiu combined for a third place time of 1:21.76.
The sprint group impressed for Tech as five different women’s swimmers combined for 75 total points. The Jackets were led by Weber who finished in a tie for fourth place with a time of 23.09. Following right behind Weber was Siebner who tallied a sixth place tie with a personal best time of 23.14 which is the third fastest time in Tech history. Following her in eighth place was Mason who finished in eighth place in 23.40 to round out A-final swimmers. Kate Riley won the B-final with a time of 22.33 while Sarah Broadley earned a 15th place finish in 23.98.
On the men’s side of things, Tech had three swimmers while tallying points. Nigel Plummer led the group with a seventh place finish in 20.56 while Ben Shepperd took home the tie for 12th place with a time of 20.84 and Jake Johnson tied for 15th place with a time of 21.00. Bo Hatchett finished 27th overall in 21.50 while Nicholas Colletti rounded out the pack in 29th place with a time of 21.69.
Hailey White set a personal best and seventh place time of 4:53.19 in the 500-Free A-Final, upping her time to the fourth fastest in school history. On the men’s side of things, newcomer Elliott Brockelbank improved from his 18th place prelim finish to 15th in the final registering a time of 4:33.74 while Zach Tillman also jumped up a couple of spots to 17th place with a 4:35.16 finish.
Tech had yet another A-finalist in Jordan Evans who also placed seventh in the 200-IM with a time of 2:03.00, just a half a second shy of her personal best time which currently ranks second in school history. On the men’s side of the event, Max Randolph and Johnnie Hermes took home 13th (1:53.42) and 15th (1:53.79) respectively to keep adding to the Tech point total. Dylan Kase took home a 22nd place finish in the C-Final with a time of 1:55.62.
In the diving events, both of Tech’s women’s divers, Helen Alvey and Ashley Hardy, earned a spot in the finals and finished ninth and 10th respectively. Alvey tallied 259.45 points en route to her ninth place finish while Hardy recorded 257.95 in the second session. After a first place finish in the 3-meter prelims, Brandon Makinson dropped to eighth place during the finals of the diving event with a score of 324.55.
Tech rounded out the night with a fifth place finish in the women’s 400-Medle Relay touching the wall in 3:46.44. Heidi Hatteberg, Ariana Berg, Jordan Evans and Weber combined for the time which currently sits in fourth place in school history. The men’s team notched a second place finish in the event with Nicholas Colletti, Anton Lagerqvist, Nico van Duijn and Andrew Kosic combining for a time of 3:18.90.
The Jackets will return to action tomorrow, Saturday, November 19 with day two of the Georgia Tech Invitational. Prelims will begin at 10 a.m. while the finals kick off at 6 p.m.
