Feb. 20, 2007
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s swimming team will travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Men’s Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming Championships, Feb. 21-24, in Koury Natatorium. The Yellow Jackets will get underway with the 800-yard freestyle and 200 medley relays on Wednesday, beginning at 7 p.m.
“The men have been anxious to get the meet started,” said Tech coach Stuart Wilson. “They feel pretty good and they’re focus. They’re looking forward to swimming fast at ACC’s.”
The entire meet can be followed at www.ramblinwreck.com. Each day will have preliminaries at 11 a.m. and finals at 7 p.m.
Tech has several athletes that appear in the top 10 in the ACC rankings. Senior Ryan Bishop leads the way with three top 10 times. Bishop, a native of Signal Mountain, Tenn., holds the league’s fourth-best time in the 400 individual medley (3:56.90), fifth-best time in the 200 IM (1:50.98) and eighth-fastest time in the 200 breaststroke (2:03.72).
Noah Copeland has the second-fastest swim in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:38.56. Copeland, a sophomore from Fayetteville, Ga., ranks 10th in the ACC with a swim of 45.75 in the 100 freestyle event.
Ryan Crete, a freshman from Sarasota, Fla., should make some noise for the Yellow Jackets in the distance events. Crete holds the league’s sixth-best time in the 1650 free with a mark of 15:37.59.
The Tech freestyle relays stand in the middle of the conference heading into the ACC meet and the 800 free relay team has finished in the top five in each of the last three seasons.
The University of Virginia will be seeking its ninth consecutive league championship this weekend and will be the favorite. Florida State, North Carolina and Georgia Tech should all compete for the next three slots.
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