Oct. 15, 2013
ATHENS, Ga. – Junior Andrew Kosic won both the 50 and 100 free and freshman diver Bradley Homza made an impressive debut by winning the men’s 1m springboard, but the Bulldogs beat the Georgia Tech men and women on Tuesday in Athens.
Kosic’s two wins contributed 18 points towards the Yellow Jackets’ cause, but Georgia held on for a 184-109 win over the men. The UGA women – the defending NCAA National Champions – were victorious, 187-104.
The Tech men and women each slipped to 1-1 on the young season, while the Bulldogs each improved to 3-0.
“We have some great team chemistry going on right now and we swam tough today,” said head coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “Georgia’s just a fast program. So give them credit, they swam well today, but I felt we swam really well too.”
Kosic won both the 50 free and 100 free in the same meet for the third time in the past two seasons and for second year in row versus the Bulldogs. He was clocked in 20.36 in sprinting to the wall in the 50, and put down a winning time of 44.68 in taking the 100.
“It’s always great swimming Georgia, it brings out the best,” said Kosic. “The goal is to keep getting faster as a team and ultimately peak around NCAAs. We’re into ACC action at the end of the month against Florida State and NC State and we’re looking forward to continuing to swim good competition.”
“We told him he needed to step up and he did,” said Hart of Kosic. “He had some pretty fast in-season times today. Sometimes he wins, and they’re not the prettiest wins, but today he brought it. He was even strong leading off the last relay. We told he needed to win a couple events today and he came through.”
On the board, Homza, a rookie from Austin, Texas, posted a score of 287.55 in winning his first collegiate event on the 1m springboard. On the 3m board, Homza scored 319.20 points and finished second. For the women, Ashley Hardy was second on 3m (315.07) and third on the 1m (282.52), while Shannon Lumbra was second on the 1m (290.47) and third on the 3m (307.80).
“We’re really excited about what Brad brings to our diving program,” said Hart. “He’s got a lot of energy and he performed well today. I know our women also had a very good meet on the boards.”
Junior Nico van Duijn was edged at the wall by Georgia’s Tynan Stewart and picked up a second-place finish in the 200 fly in a time of 1:50.50. van Duijn also placed second in the 100 fly with his time of 49.60.
Junior Kate Brandus had a strong meet for the Jackets. She finished second in the 100 fly (57.12) and picked up a fourth-place finish in the 200 fly (2:04.74).
“Kate had a really good meet for us today and I’m proud of what she did in the 100 and 200 fly,” said Hart. “Erika Staskevicius and Chiara Ruiu also had solid meets.”
Staskevicius was third in the 50 free (24.31) and sixth in the 100 free (52.63). Ruiu was fifth in both the 200 free (1:53.08) and 100 free (52.56). Senior Hailey White and Ruiu placed second (5:04.29) and third (5:06.01), respectively, in the 500 free.
Sophomore Darelle Cowley and senior Catherine Richards finished second and third in the 100 breast, with Cowley touching the wall in 1:06.53 and Richards clocking in at 1:07.32.
The 100 breast was also a strong event for the men as Tech finished 2-3-4 in the event, led by sophomore Ricky Lehner (58.26) in second. Anton Lagerqvist was third (58.61) and Ryan Salmon was fourth (59.43).
Wilson Wei picked up a third-place finish for the men in the 200 back (1:53.40), while Lagerqvist and Andreas Nilsson placed second (2:07.95) and fourth (2:10.33), respectively, in the 200 breast. Wei was also fourth in the 100 back (52.49).
Georgia Tech returns to action Oct. 25 with an ACC double-dual meet versus Florida State and NC State in Tallahassee.
