ATLANTA (Oct. 16) – NC State registered a pair of Atlantic Coast Conference wins Saturday as it downed both Georgia Tech and Florida State in a double dual-meet at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The Yellow Jackets also fell to Florida State, as the team’s overall record is now 1-2 and 0-2 ACC.
NC State defeated Tech 221.5-72.5, while the Seminoles turned back the Jackets 210-88. NC State defeated Florida State, ranked No. 19 in the pre-season rankings, 152-148 after sweeping the top three spots in the 400 individual medley and taking first place in the 200 freestyle relay to end the meet. Florida State finished second in the ACC Championship meet a year ago, while NC State placed fourth.
Freshman Shilo Ayalon (Kfar Hanassi, Israel) established a new school record in the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:57.46 to place third. He was also fourth in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:40.20 on the day. Sophomore David Laitala (Richardson, Texas) established a new mark in the 100 butterfly by 1.2 seconds as he swam a time of 51.30 seconds to place fourth in the event. He also registered a third-place finish in the 100 backstroke in a time of 52.44 seconds. Freshman Tomonori Tsuji (Osaka, Japan) had a solid day as he placed third in the 200 breaststroke in 2:10.61 and fourth in the 100 breaststroke in 59.01 seconds.
“We had several solid individual performances, but did not have an overall team performance at the competitive level where we needed to be,” said third-year head coach Seth Baron. “We are taking an aggressive approach in recruiting and coaching tactics to reach the level of those two teams we faced today. We know that it will be a long process to achieve that goal, and will keep in perspective that this is one of the steps in getting there.”
Tech next will be in action October 30 in a double dual-meet at Emory University with Davidson at 9 a.m. at the Woodruff Center Natatorium.
