Nov. 20, 2014
THE FLATS – The 24th-ranked Georgia Tech men’s swimming & diving team is in second place after Day 1 of the 2014 GT Invitational as senior Andrew Kosic helped the Yellow Jackets keep pace with No. 7 Florida.
The Gators scored 514 points on Day 1 and lead the men’s meet, followed by the Yellow Jackets (261), No. 20 Florida State (253), Indian River (178), Florida Atlantic (111), South Carolina (40), Auburn (40), Utah (26) and College of Charleston (1).
The 11th-ranked Florida women’s team leads the women’s meet with 408 points, followed by Arkansas (253), Florida State (237), FGCU (189), FAU (124), Vanderbilt (110), Colorado State (102), Georgia Tech (91), Miami (91), Bowling Green (85), Indian River (67), South Carolina (59), Campbell (42) and Auburn (30).
Meet Notes
• The Florida women’s 200 free relay set a pool record and achieved an NCAA A-cut with their winning time of 1:28.94. The previous pool record was also held by the Gators, set in 2009 (1:29.61).
• Florida’s Caleb Dressel also set an NCAA A-cut in the 50 free, edging Georgia Tech’s Andrew Kosic with a time of 19.31.
• Action continues Friday morning with preliminaries at 10 a.m.
Men’s Highlights
• Senior All-American Andrew Kosic had a big night, posting a lightning-fast NCAA B-cut in the 50 free, while helping the 200 free relay and 400 medley relay to a second-place finishes.
• After putting down a 19.70 in the 50 free during the prelims as the top qualifier, Kosic came back in the finals and dropped a 19.44 (NCAA B-cut), which was .04 seconds off his school-record time of 19.40.
• Kosic was just edged at the wall in the 50 free final by Florida’s Dressel, who was clocked at 19.31 – an NCAA A-cut.
• Kosic teamed with Noah Harasz, Youssef Hammoud and Andrew Chetcuti to finish second in the 200 free relay in a time of 1:19.75.
• The 400 medley relay of Brad Oberg, Ricky Lehner, Ben Southern and Kosic finished just .03 shy of the school record in finishing second in a time of 3:11.32.
• Behind Kosic in the 50 free were Hammoud in ninth (20.64) and Harasz in 10th (20.67). The B-final of 50 free included Taylor Wilson (17th), Chetcuti (18th) and Dan Cohan-Solal (19th).
• Yuval Safra swam to an eighth-place finish in the 500 free in a time of 4:28.25. Elliott Brockelbank was 13th in the 500 free (4:27.44) after shaving four seconds off his prelim time, while Michael Kenney was 16th(4:30.38).
• The Jackets had two men in the 200 IM A-final, with Manuel Barragan taking fifth (1:51.44) and Alex Kimpel in sixth (1:51.59).
• Brad Homza finished third on the 1-meter springboard, with Omar Eteiba coming in 10th. Homza scored 329.25 in the prelim and followed with a 334.75 in the finals. Eteiba scored 267.70 and followed with 275.30 in the finals.
Women’s Highlights
• Shannon Lumbra was impressive on the 3-meter springboard, finishing fifth overall. Lumbra scored 290.20 in the prelims and followed with a score of 300.45 in finals.
• The women’s 200 free relay got the finals started as Chiara Ruiu, Erika Staskevicius, Kira de Bruyn and Efrat Rotsztejn finished eighth in a time of 1:34.92.
• Ruiu and teammate MaryKathryn Terry each scored points in the 500 free B-final, with Ruiu finishing 19th (5:00.26) and Terry 20th (5:08.50).
• de Bruyn won the C-final in the 200 IM with a time of 2:01.89, shaving four seconds off her prelim time. Frederique Lefebvre was 28th (2:08.42).
• The Jackets’ 400 medley relay of Maddie Paschal, Darelle Cowley, Kate Brandus and Ruiu finished 10th in a time of 3:47.97.
