March 1, 2014
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Led by juniors Andrew Kosic and Elliott Brockelbank, Georgia Tech finished out the 2014 ACC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championship with a strong performance and held off Duke and Pittsburgh to bring home seventh place as a team.
Kosic broke his own school record with a fifth-place finish in the 100 free and Brockelbank took fifth in the 1,650 free to highlight Saturday night for Tech. The Yellow Jackets’ accumulated 213.5 points Saturday – their most for a single-day during this championship – and finished the meet with 543 points.
Virginia Tech edged NC State for the ACC men’s title by just 38.5 points. North Carolina, Virginia and Florida State rounded out the top five.
Kosic broke his own school record in the 100 free, breaking the 43-second mark in both the prelims and the finals on Saturday. His previous record of 43.23 was set last season and he broke that in the prelims with a time of 42.93.
He came back in the finals and bettered it with a 42.84 that was good for a tie for fifth-place with Notre Dame’s Frank Dyer.
“I’m really proud of the effort today from our team,” said head coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “We had Duke and Pitt right on our heels coming into tonight. We swam with a purpose and we did a great job of holding them off. Kosic obviously had an outstanding meet and he broke another school record today. Elliott had a great swim in the mile and it was nice to see Nico put up a career-best in the 200 fly.”
Brockelbank swam to a fifth-place finish in the 1,650 free, which was a career-best ACC finish for the junior. He recorded the third-fastest 1,650 free in Tech history with his time of 15:14.44, which was an NCAA “B” cut.
Also in the mile, sophomore Yuval Safra was 12th 15:22.90 (B-cut), while sophomore Michael Kenny was 19th in a time of 15:37.69.
Junior Nico van Duijn led the way with three Jackets in the B-Final of the 200 fly. van Duijn won the B-Final, touching the wall in a time of 1:44.33 — a career-best for the junior and surpassed his own mark as the second-fastest in Tech history.
Freshman Ben Southern was 15th overall, posting a time of 1:46.49, while junior Mark Sarman was 16th in a time of 1:47.40. All three times by the Jackets in the 200 fly were B-cuts.
Tech had two swimmers in the C-Final of the 200 breast, with senior Anton Lagerqvist posting an 18th-place finish overall in a time of 1:58.29 (B-cut). Sophomore Ricky Lehner also achieved a B-cut with his 20th-place finish in a time of 1:58.91.
In the 200 back, freshman Robert Borowicz was 22nd (1:48.75) and sophomore Safra was 23rd (1:49.04).
The final event of the championship, the 400 free relay, saw the Yellow Jackets finish sixth and put down the second-fastest time in Tech history. Kosic led it off with a 43.26 split, van Duijn and freshmen Taylor Wilson followed, and senior Jake Johnson brought the relay home in a time of 2:55.15.
The Yellow Jackets will host an NCAA “Last Chance” meet at the GT Aquatic Center next weekend. The NCAA championships begin March 20 for the women in Minneapolis, Minn. and March 27 for the men in Austin, Texas.
