ATLANTA – In a meet that was still in doubt entering the final event, the Georgia Tech swimming & diving team turned in a strong performance before falling to Florida State by a 136-105 score in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.
The Yellow Jackets (2-1, 0-1 ACC) turned in one of their top outings against the Seminoles (3-0, 1-0 ACC), after losing a year ago by a 210-88 score. Tech opened the meet by winning the 400 medley relay in a time of 3:23.97. The team of Jorge Oliver (Jacksonville, Fla.), Tomonri Tsuji (Osaka, Japan), David Laitala (Richardson, Texas) and Josh Hersko (Marietta, Ga.) combined on the time, which missed the school record by just over two seconds and was the third-fastest time in school history.
The Jackets’ individual competitors were once again led in the meet by sophomore Shilo Ayalon (Kfar Hanassi, Israel), who won both the 1,000- and 500-yard freestyle events for the third straight meet. Ayalon won the 1,000-yard event with a time of 9:43.21, and led a Tech sweep of the top three places. He was followed by freshman Eddy Oliver (Jacksonville, Fla.) in second with a time of 9:47.29, and James Salazar (Huntsville, Ala.), who had a time of 9:49.87, and was third. In the 500-yard freestyle, Ayalon once again led a sweep of the top three spots as he won by nearly nine seconds with his time of 4:34.38. Following Ayalon was freshman Ricky Rauch (Houston, Texas) in second with a time of 4:43.31, and Eddy Oliver in third with a time of 4:51.40.
Along with being a member of Tech’s winning 400 medley relay team, Tomonori Tsuji was victorious in the 200 breaststroke, as he won by over three seconds with a time of 2:05.01. The Jackets took three of the top four positions in the race, as Robbie Foster (Frankfort, Ky.) placed second with a time of 2:08.12, and Tech rookie Chris Biedrzycki (Charlotte, N.C.) was fourth with his time of 2:08.73.
The difference in the meet came at the diving well, as the score of the swimming competition was a tight 104-101 in favor of FSU. Tech was unable to match the Seminoles in the diving competition, as the Jackets’ lone diver Dustin Thorn (Marietta, Ga.) scored four points, finishing with a score of 199.90 in the one-meter diving competition and a score of 197.80 from the three-meter board. Florida State’s diving trio of Josh Edelman, Jamie Korten and Lou Dondero combined for 32 points to help seal the win.
In the meet’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, and the final result still in doubt, Georgia Tech’s relay team of Brendan Forbes, Itai Eden, David Silver and Ricky Rauch finished third with a time of 3:11.34 and was unable to close the gap on the Seminoles.
Despite the result, Tech head coach Seth Baron was pleased with the team’s effort. “We are extremely pleased with our team’s performance today,” said Baron. “Florida State was ranked 25th in the preseason poll, and any time you can take a Top 25 team down to the wire like that, it says a lot about your program. Even though they put up a better score than we did, I felt we were very competitive today.”
The Yellow Jackets will return to action next Saturday, as they step outside the ACC and face Davidson on the road in a dual meet beginning at 12 noon.
