Feb. 26, 2005
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ATLANTA – Junior All-American Sam Morgan won the 1650-yard freestyle with a NCAA Automatic qualifying time of 14:54.71 to break the pool record and lead Georgia Tech to a third-place finish (429 pts.) at the Men’s Atlantic Coast Conference Swimming & Diving Championships on Saturday night in the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Virginia won its seventh straight ACC crown with a point total of 726.5.
The Yellow Jackets improved on a fifth-place finish a year ago and finished third for just the second time in school history.
“Overall tonight was the best session we’ve ever had at the ACC Championships,” said head coach Seth Baron. “At the conclusion of prelims, third place looked like a long shot because the way UNC swam. But some how, and some way, our guys really stepped up and put together an excellent session of swimming. It started with the mile, with three guys in the top seven, and steamrolled all the way through the relay [400 freestyle] where we went under three minutes for the first time in school history and broke the school record.
“Jumping up from fifth to third place was a huge jump for our program and I’m really happy for our seniors who were able to finish their careers with a great ACC finish in our home pool.”
Morgan, a native of Gainesville, Ga., won his first ACC title and became just the second Tech athlete to win the mile in the history of the men’s program (Shilo Ayalon-2003). He will compete at the NCAA Championships for the third straight season.
The Tech 400 free relay team of Teemu Kettunen, Marc Maier, Ryan Riebesell and Jason Howard swam a school record time of 2:59.82 to finish in fifth place and clinch third place for the Rambling Wreck.
Freshman Rob Miller and senior Matt Figh also tallied top-eight finishes for the Yellow Jackets in the mile. Miller posted a NCAA `B’ standard of 15:16.10 to finish fourth and Figh swam a NCAA `B’ cut time of 15:22.84 to finish seventh.
Howard posted a lifetime-best time of 44.57 to notch a NCAA `B’ standard in the 100 free and finish the race in fifth place. Kettunen won his consolation heat with a lifetime-best time of 45.24 to finish the 100 free in ninth place overall.
Senior Jeremy Raines tallied a 16th-place finish for the Jackets in the 200 backstroke with a season-best time of 1:51.22. Sophomore Alex Williams clocked a lifetime-best time of 2:02.48 in the 200 breaststroke to finish in eighth place.
Freshman Onur Uras won the consolation heat in the 200 butterfly with a lifetime-best time of 1:50.01 to finish in ninth place overall for the Jackets.
1. Virginia - 726.52. Florida State - 5803. Georgia Tech - 4294. North Carolina - 4125. Clemson - 3236. NC State - 3217. Virginia Tech - 289.58. Maryland - 2739. Duke - 132
-GT SWIMMING & DIVING-
