Feb. 28, 2008
ATLANTA – Two more school records were set as the Georgia Tech men’s swimming team sits in fifth place after the second day of the ACC Championships Thursday night at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Mauricio Sousa set a new school record in the 50-free while the Tech 200-free relay team also set a new team record. In women’s time trials, Agatha Kwasnik set a new school record in the 100-free and registered an automatic NCAA qualifying “A” cut.
“This was another solid night for us,” head coach Stu Wilson said. “We set two more team records and had some very fast swims overall. Tomorrow is our strongest day so hopefully we can keep this rolling and move up in the standings.
Virginia holds onto the top spot of the team standings, collecting 284 points. Florida State moves up to second place with 208 points, while North Carolina remains in third at 161. Virginia Tech totaled 154 points for fourth place with Georgia Tech rounding out the top five with 139.
In the 500-free, Noah Copeland clocked a NCAA “B” cut 4:26.30 during prelims to advance to the evening’s consolation final. His time set a new career-high. In finals, he finished 14th at 4:27.50. Jeff Burton placed 24th with a career-high mark of 4:34.66.
In the 200 IM, Andy Miller was fifth for the Jackets with a career-high time of 1:49.54.
The 50-free saw another school record go down as Mauricio Sousa’s time of 19.99 was a NCAA “B” cut and put him in the record books. In the finals, Sousa touched the wall in 20.10, which was good for sixth-place.
Four other Yellow Jackets set new career-highs in the consolation finals of the 50-free. Garrett Robberrson was 12th (20.32) followed by Onur Uras in 14th, Jacob Kwasnik in 15th and Mickey Malul in 16th.
Tech also set a school record in the 200-yard free relay. The team of Sousa, Uras, Kwasnik and Robberrson finished sixth in a NCAA “B” cut time of 1:20.20.
Throughout the meets, various time trials are held to give the student-athletes another chance to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. For the women, Agatha Kwasnik made the most of her chance in the 100-free. She clocked in at 49.39 to set a new school record. In addition, her time was good enough for a NCAA “A” cut and an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.
The ACC Men’s Championship runs through Saturday at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Prelims begin daily at 11:00 a.m. while finals will get underway each night at 7:00 p.m. Friday will feature the 400-IM, 100-fly, 200-free, 100-breast, 100-back and the 400-medley relay while the 1650-free, 200-back, 100-free, 200-breast, 200-fly and 400-free relay will take place Saturday.
Admission will be free for all fans. For those who can’t make it, live streaming video and live stats will be available through ACC Select.
