Oct. 25, 2013
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Sophomore Yuval Safra won a pair of events for Georgia Tech Friday night during a double-dual meet versus ACC rivals Florida State and NC State in Tallahassee, Fla. Captains Kate Brandus and Nico van Duijn also turned in solid efforts for the Yellow Jackets.
Safra pulled off the distance-double by winning the 1,000 free by three seconds in a career-best time of 9:23.58 and edging State’s Alex Hamilton in the 500 free by a one second in a winning time of 4:33.70.
van Duijn posted a third-place finish in the 200 fly (1:48.46), finished third in the 100 fly (48.63) and anchored the Jackets’ 200 free relay that took fourth in a time of 1:23.36. Classmate Kate Brandus was fourth in the 200 fly (2:05.09) and fifth in the 100 fly (57.20).
“Florida State and NC State are both very good programs and the men’s teams are each ranked in the top 25,” said head coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “But Yuval had a great meet. Doubling in both the 500 and 1,000 in the same meet is never easy and I’m proud of his performance. Nico had some very good in-season times, and I was happy to see Kate, Ben (Southern) and Shannon (Lumbra) also have very good meets.”
Junior Andrew Kosic picked up a second-place finish in the 200 free (1:38.84), while Southern – a freshman – posted seventh in a time of 1:40.78. Southern also finished a spot behind van Duijn in the 200 fly, putting down a time of 1:49.08 that was good for fourth. In the 400 IM, Southern touched the wall in 4:06.34, which was good for sixth.
Additionally, Kosic was third in the 50 free (20.59) and fourth in the 100 free (45.22). Junior Catherine Richards was sixth in the 100 breast (1:06.15) and sixth in the 200 breast (2:22.97). Elliott Brockelbank was fifth in the 1,000 free (9:31.17) and fourth in the 500 free (4:38.35).
On the 1-meter board, Shannon Lumbra posted a score of 276.55 that was good for third, with Andrea Demick, Ashley Hardy and Madison Young finishing fifth, sixth and seventh. The 3-meter competition saw Hardy score 284.35 points and finish fourth, followed by Lumbra, Demick and Young in fifth, sixth and seventh.
Freshman Brad Homza was fifth on the 1-meter board (302.80) and sixth on the 3-meter (301.15).
The Yellow Jackets dropped both dual meets, with Florida State claiming a 213-65 win over the men and 239-61 over the women. The Wolfpack defeated the Jackets, but fell to the Seminoles. FSU’s men entered the meet ranked 10th with NC State’s men ranked 24th.
The Jackets (1-3, 0-2) return to action Nov. 9 by hosting SCAD and Clemson at the GT Aquatic Center at 11 a.m.
