Feb. 28, 2016
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Georgia Tech men’s swimmers completed their final day of competition at the ACC Men’s Swimming Championships, and the Jackets closed on a high note. The Georgia Tech men finished in 5th place with 776 points.
“I’m very happy for our men’s team,” head coach Courtney Shealy Hart said. “We moved up a spot in the standings from yesterday because we fought hard. We lost a lot of points from last year in Andrew Kosic and Nico van Duijn, and these guys stepped up this week, as they have all year. It’s been a great year, and we’re not done yet. We’re excited to get back in the pool and finish off NCAAs. I’m very proud of our teams – both swimming and diving. It was a great team effort all around.”
The second school record of the weekend was set by Moises Loschi, who recorded a time of 1:54.95 in the 200 breast prelims. He would go on to finish fifth in the A final. Alex Kimpel set a personal best and won the B final of the same event, recording a time of 1:55.98. Ricky Lehner finished second in the C final with a time of 1:59.41.
In the 200 back, Yuval Safra qualified for the B final, while Mark Keaveney (1:45.18) and Robert Borowicz (1:45.88) set personal bests in the prelims. Keaveney would go on to finish second in the C final, while Borowicz finished seventh. Safra finished eighth in the B final.
In the 100 free, Youssef Hammoud qualified for the A final with a then-PR of 42.93. He would go on to finish fourth in the A final and put his personal best at 42.92. Rodrigo Correia finished second in the B final with a time of 43.32.
Ben Southern and Brad Oberg both qualified for the B final of the 200 fly, with Oberg setting a new PR of 1:46.97 in the prelims. Southern went on to finish second in the B final, while Oberg finished seventh and brought his PR to 1:46.70.
In the 1650 free, Loschi finished fifth with a time of 15.09.15, while Colt Williamson (11th, 15:15.78), Michael Kenny (14th, 15:19.37) and Yuval Safra (15th, 15:20.23) also finished well.
In the 400 free relay, Tech’s quartet of Hammoud, Noah Harasz, Keaveney and Correia finished sixth with a time of 2:54.72 to close out the meet.
149 of Tech’s 766 points came from diving, which occurred last week. The diving effort was led by Brad Homza, who was a finalist in all three dives and won the gold medal in the platform competition. For his performances, he was awarded the Men’s Diving MVP in a vote by the coaches. Matt Casillas, Omar Eteiba and Nolan Mallet also contributed points to the overall score.
For the second time in program history, Georgia Tech and the McAuley Aquatic Center will serve as the host site for the 2016 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships. The Women’s Championships will be held March 16-19, followed by the Men’s Championships March 23-26. Georgia Tech previously hosted the 2006 NCAA Championships and the CRC was also the site of the 1996 Summer Olympics swimming and diving competitions.
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