THE FLATS – The Georgia tech swimming and diving team split its final meet of the regular season against #-/19 South Carolina. The men emerged victorious in an epic finish at 151-137 with the women dropping 197-102.
Vivien Rothwell continued her incredible three-week stretch with another program record in the 100-yard backstroke event. The junior nearly broke the 25 second mark of the first 50 yards before racing home to 27.44 for the final half to secure the victory.
Rothwell overtook her previous best mark by 0.19 seconds, which was set two weeks ago in the dual meet at #16 Alabama. She now holds five of the top-ten program best marks in the 100-yard backstroke event, including owning the top four times. Three of the best four times were set in January 2026.
The Jackets began the meet with opening relay wins in the 200-yard medley. The lead women’s team set the second-best mark in program history at 1:38.27 while the men finished 0.1 of a second ahead of the Gamecocks. Lili Gyurinovics was the first to the wall in the women’s 200-yard freestyle and set the eighth-fastest time for Tech.
Senior Phoebe Wright closed out her final regular season meet in fashion with another dominant time. Her mark of 1:53.93 during the 200-yard backstroke race was the second-fastest time for Tech. She owns the top-seven times in school history; no other swimmer holds more than four of the top records in any discipline.
Freshman Tuncer Berk Ertürk had a monster day in the pool with two race victories in different strokes. He hit the wall first in the 200-yard butterfly race at 1:43.94 before winning the final individual race of the meet in the 400-yard IM at 3:48.47. Ertürk recorded top-10 records in both wins.
Max Fowler enjoyed a strong day in the diving events, sweeping both the one and three-meter sessions. His one-meter session accumulated up to 394.05 which became the fourth-highest mark in the event for Georgia Tech. Fowler owns the best mark in both the one and three-meter diving sessions.
The sprint freestyle races were dominated by Robin Yeboah who won both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle races while Ricky Balduccini swam half a second clear to secure his victory in the 100-yard backstroke event. He set a new personal best for himself, 0.07 ahead of his previous time and overtakes the fourth-fastest time in Tech history.
Zara Masud set two top-10 school records in the 100 and 200-yard butterfly events. Masud’s 52.99 time in the 100 fly becomes the third-fastest mark for the Jackets while her 1:58.27 in the 200 fly settles in as the sixth-best mark. Jillian Ferrari clocked the 10th-fastest program time at 49.47 in the women’s 100-yard freestyle race.
The day concluded with the women setting the third-fastest program time in the 400-yard freestyle relay at 3:16.70 to win the race before the men secured their dual meet victory with a nail-biting finish. The lead Tech squad hit the wall at 2:53.76, less than two-tenths of a second ahead of South Carolina to punctuate the victory.
Georgia Tech concludes the dual-meet season and will look to hosting the 2026 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships beginning on February 15. Ticketing information will be available soon.
Full Steam Ahead
Full Steam Ahead is a $500 million fundraising initiative to achieve Georgia Tech athletics’ goal of competing for championships at the highest level in the next era of intercollegiate athletics. The initiative will fund transformative projects for Tech athletics, including renovations of Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field (the historic home of Georgia Tech football), the Zelnak Basketball Center (the practice and training facility for Tech basketball) and O’Keefe Gymnasium (the venerable home of Yellow Jackets volleyball), as well as additional projects and initiatives to further advance Georgia Tech athletics through program wide-operational support. All members of the Georgia Tech community are invited to visit atfund.org/FullSteamAhead for full details and renderings of the renovation projects, as well as to learn about opportunities to contribute online.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on Instagram (GTswimdive), Facebook (Georgia Tech Swim and Dive), X (@GTswimdive) or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
