ATLANTA (Jan. 22) — Georgia Tech’s men’s swimming and diving team fell to South Carolina Saturday in a non-conference dual meet, 127-116, at Carolina Natatorium in Columbia, S.C. The Yellow Jackets (4-5) narrowly missed the victory despite setting a pair of school records and just missing a third on the day.
Freshman Shilo Ayalon (Kfar Hanassi, Israel) reset his own school record in the 1,000-yard freestyle as he won that event in 9:23.78. He also captured the 500 freestyle in 4:37.44 to score a pair of victories and increase his win total to 13 on the season. Freshman Tomonori Tsuji (Osaka, Japan) set a new school record in the 200 breaststroke as he swam a 2:03.93, which eclipsed the former mark of 2:04.52 set by Gerry Hale in 1992.
Freshman James Salazar (Huntsville, Ala.) won the 200 backstroke in a time of 1:51.83 and missed the school mark in that category by just .28-hundreths of a second. The Jacket 400 freestyle relay team also captured first place on the day after winning in a time of 3:11.10.
Sophomore David Laitala (Richardson, Texas) had a solid day was he placed second in both the 400 individual medley in 4:07.59 and in the 200 butterfly in 1:54.65.
In addition to five first place and two second place finishes, the Jackets captured 11 third places but could not overcome the Gamecocks sweeping the top three spots in both diving events.
“We swam a lot better today than we did Friday against Clemson,” said head coach Seth Baron. “We were able to hit two school records and just miss a third, which means that we are swimming fast times with five weeks left until the Atlantic Coast Conference championship meet. We were 11 points short today against a very good team.”
Tech is off from action until a road trip to the state of Kentucky when it visits Western Kentucky on February 4 and Louisville on February 5.
Tech’s Results:
400 Medley Relay: 2. GT-A (Oliver, Tsuji, Laitala,Silver), 3:27.40; 3. GT-B (Lenyk, Foster, Skaggs, Campbell),3:35.68 1,000 Freestyle: 1. Shilo Ayalon, 9:23.78; 3. JamesSalazar, 9:47.94; 4. Leo Salinas, 9:50.39 200 Freestyle: 3.Mark Campbell, 1:46.78; 4. Scott Lenyk, 1:46.98; 5. David Silver,1:94.95 50 Freestyle: 3. Ross Dye, 21.86; 4. Eric Hunter,22.41; 5. Jorge Oliver, 22.52 400 Individual Medley: 2.David Laitala, 4:07.59; 3. Carl Nylander, 4:08.45; 4. Shilo Ayalon,4:13.96; 6. Hank Longmire, 4:22.48 1-Meter Diving: 4. BenDanneman, 171.07; 5. Dustin Thorn, 151.95 200 Butterfly: 2.David Laitala, 1:54.65; 3. Brady Skaggs, 1:54.75; 5. CharlesGersbach, 1:57.87; 6. James Nozar, 2:02.99 100 Freestyle: 3.Ross Dye, 48.43; 4. Jorge Oliver, 48.93; 5. Eric Hunter, 49.60; 7.John Fennessy, 55.78 200 Backstroke: 1. James Salazar,1:51.83; 3. Scott Lenyk, 1:52.51; 4. Carl Nylander, 1:59.35 500Freestyle: 1. Shilo Ayalon, 4:37.44; 4. Hank Longmire, 4:47.27;4. Leo Salinas, 4:49.71 3-Meter Diving: 4. Ben Dannemann,227.55; 5. Dustin Thorn, 131.32 200 Breaststroke: 1.Tomonori Tsuji, 2:03.93; 3. Robbie Foster, 2:09.01; 4. CarlNylander, 2:13.69 400 Freestyle Relay: 1. GT-A (Dye,Campbell, Hunter, Silver), 3:11.10; 3. GT-B (Nozar, Salazar,Salinas, Skaggs), 3:21.64
