Feb. 27, 2014
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Junior Andrew Kosic set a school record in the 50 free and finished sixth in the event Thursday night as Georgia Tech maintained its hold on seventh-place in the team standings of the 2014 ACC Men’s Swimming Championship.
Kosic put down a time of 19.51 in the 50 free prelims on Thursday afternoon, and came back in the A-Final with a time of 19.61 that was good for sixth. He also finished sixth in the 50 free in last year’s ACC Championship in a time of 19.74.
With his 19.51 in the prelims, the West Chester, Pa., native broke the five-year-old school record of 19.54 set by Nigel Plummer in 2009. Kosic now owns school records in the 50 free, 100 free and 100 back.
“Today was decent day overall, but we’re leaving some points out there,” said head coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “Andrew’s school record was obviously a great prelims swim and then tonight, Brockelbank and Southern swam faster and moved up. We have to be aggressive and ready to go tomorrow morning and we need to put ourselves in scoring positions.”
With 201 points as a team, Tech sits in seventh place at the midway point of the championship. NC State leads the men’s standings with 415 points, followed by Virginia Tech (411), Virginia (338), North Carolina (337.5) and Notre Dame (325) in the top five.
Junior Nico van Duijn also scored points for the Jackets in the 50 free as he was clocked in a time of 20.05 in the C-Final, which was an NCAA “B” cut and good for 21st overall.
The 500 free saw four Yellow Jackets score points, led by junior Elliott Brockelbank, who secured an NCAA “B” cut with a time of 4:24.69. Brockelbank, who won the C-Final Thursday night, set a career best time and the fifth-fastest in school history.
Freshman Ben Southern was fourth in the C-Final (20th overall) with his time of 4:26.09, with Mats Westergren (23rd, 4:28.22) and Yuval Safra (24th, 4:28.84) also scoring points.
Junior Mark Sarman, in the prelims of the 200 IM, put down a career-best time and the second-fastest in school history, but missed a spot in the C-Final by .07 seconds.
Kosic and van Duijn teamed with junior Andrew Chetcuti and freshman Taylor Wilson to finish sixth in the 200 free relay in a time of 1:19.19.
The championship continues Friday at 11 a.m. with the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast and 100 back preliminaries, with the finals in those events in addition to the 400 medley relay beginning on Friday night at 7 p.m.
