Oct. 17, 2014
THE FLATS – It was a strong Friday night in the pool for Georgia Tech swimming & diving as the men picked up an impressive non-conference win over South Carolina and the women opened ACC action by beating Notre Dame at the GT Aquatic Center.
The Yellow Jacket men improved to 2-1 by defeating the Gamecocks, 186-114, while the women’s record moved to 2-2 after beating the Irish, 157-143, but falling to South Carolina, 177-123.
Tech is right back in action Saturday morning at the GT Aquatic Center, hosting Pitt and Georgia Southern. The meet begins at 11 a.m.
Men’s Highlights
• Rookie Brian Woodbury was impressive, winning both the 100 back (50.24) and the 200 IM (1:54.50) and helping the 200 medley relay to a victory in the meet’s first event. Woodbury teamed with Mark Sarman, Ben Southern and Nico van Duijn to take the relay in a time of 1:30.21.
• Woodbury’s other individual event was a second-place finish (1:52.26) to teammate Robert Borowicz (1:49.99) in the 200 back.
• Southern also picked up a pair of individual event wins as the sophomore claimed the 100 fly (48.97) and went 1-2 with van Duijn in the 200 fly.
• Yuval Safra swept the distance events for the Yellow Jackets, putting down a time of 4:28.78 in winning the 500 free and cruising to an eight-second victory over USC’s Tom Peribonio in the 1,000 free (9:19.44).
• Senior Andrew Kosic continues the strong start to his season as he won all three individual events he entered – the 50 free (20.01), the 100 free (44.15) and the 200 free (1:38.41). His 50 and 100 free times were each NCAA “B” cuts.
• Behind Kosic, Tech swept the top three spots in the 50 free with Andrew Chetcuti (20.99) in second and Taylor Wilson (21.16) in third.
• Kosic, Chetcuti, Wilson and van Duijn cemented the victory over South Carolina with a win in the 400 free relay in a time of 3:01.73.
Women’s Highlights
• Chiara Ruiu turned in a big meet by winning the 200 free (1:52.30), finishing second in the 200 IM (2:06.76) and helping the 400 free relay to victory.
• Shannon Lumbra finished second on both springboard events, scoring 294.95 points on the 1-meter and 306.00 on the 3-meter.
• Alex Rieger also swam on the winning 400 free relay and registered a second-place finish in the 200 back in a time of 2:02.10.
• Rieger and Ruiu joined Erika Staskevicius and Darelle Cowley in putting down a winning time of 3:29.46 in the 400 free relay.
• Tech also picked up a third-place finish in the 400 free relay as MaryKathryn Terry, Elise Breaux, Katherine Kerman and Kira de Bruyn were clocked in 3:33.49.
Quotes from head coach Courtney Shealy Hart
• “I’m thrilled with the results tonight. South Carolina is always a strong men’s program and Notre Dame is a women’s team that was ranked in the Top 25 last season and has an American record-holder on its roster.”
• “The key tonight was our depth, and that was something we had talked about. It wasn’t just our athletes at the top of the lineup. It was a team-effort and I’m proud of how we performed. Now we have to re-focus our energy and get ready for another tough test with Pitt and Georgia Southern coming in tomorrow morning.”
• “Ben (Southern) swam very well for us tonight, Yuval (Safra) was strong, and Brian (Woodbury) had a very good meet. Kosic continues to swim very fast right and he’s had a great start to his senior season.” • “Chiara (Ruiu) and Shannon (Lumbra) both were big keys for the women to get that first ACC win.”
