Dec. 5, 2003
ATHENS, Ga. – Sophomore Sam Morgan (Gainesville, Ga.) posted a third-place finish in the 400-meter freestyle (3:56.44) to tally the highest finish by a Yellow Jacket on day one of the Georgia Invitational in the Gabrielsen Natatorium this afternoon. The men’s swimming and diving team stands fourth with 182 points and the women’s swimming and diving team is fourth with 131 points, after the first day of competition. No. 9 Minnesota leads the men’s competition with 353 points, while No. 2 Georgia leads the women’s side with 417 points.
“I was pleased with the first day of competition,” said head coach Seth Baron. “We had a number of athletes swim season-best times during the prelims of the short yards course. We’re swimming against ranked teams in Georgia (No. 7 men), Minnesota (No. 9 men, No. 24 women) and Penn State (No. 13 women) and we were very competitive. We have been training really hard and it shows with the times that we are swimming right now.”
Several Yellow Jackets swam season top times this afternoon. Morgan ended the preliminaries of the 500-yard freestyle with a season-best time of 4:28.22. Junior Matt Figh (Montgomery, Ala.) tallied a season-best time of 4:29.33 in the prelims of the 500 free and finished fourth in the 400-meter free (3:56.50). Senior Eduardo Oliver (Jacksonville, Fla.) finished sixth in the finals of the 400-meter free (4:00.13) and ended the prelims of the 500 free with a season-best time of 4:31.89.
Freshman Ryan Bishop (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) ended the 200-meter individual medley with a time 2:06.30 to finish seventh in the event. The Tech ‘A’ relay team of Ryan Riebesell (Hoover, Ala.), Teemu Kettunen (Jarvenpaa, Finland), Brian Huff (Marietta, Ga.) and Jason Howard (Snellville, Ga.) finished fifth in the 200-meter free with a time of 1:34.18.
On the women’s side, junior Moeko Wallis (Columbus, Ga.) swam a season-best time of 23.99 in the prelims of the 50 free and finished seventh in the finals of the 50-meter free with a time of 26.90. Sophomore Laurissa Prystaj (Fairport, N.Y.) and junior Amy Sutton (Hoover, Ala.) placed in the top 10 of the one-meter diving event for the Jackets. Prystaj finished ninth on the one-meter board scoring 222.10 points, while Sutton tallied 221.25 points on the one-meter springboard to finish 10th.
Georgia Tech will continue at the Georgia Invitational for day two Saturday, Dec. 6, in the Natatorium. The prelims will begin at 9 a.m. and will be on the short yards course and the finals will follow at 5 p.m. on the short meters course. The swim meet can be followed via live stats at Georgia Invitational.
