Oct. 2, 2009
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech Swimming & Diving teams open the 2009-10 season on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. by hosting a quad meet at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The Yellow Jackets will welcome Alabama, Florida Atlantic, Florida Gulf Coast and Georgia Southern to begin the Courtney Hart era.
“Everyone is excited for the season to begin,” said Hart. “They’re been training hard and now it’s time to get in water and begin working towards the ACC and NCAA championships. It’s great to be in our pool. We’ve had some great swims in it and looking forward to hosting several meets this year.”
The meet will be a 16-event format with the 200 Medley, 1000 Free, 200 IM, and 400 Free relays. Fans can follow the meet with live stats via the link at www.RamblinWreck.com.
This past season, the men’s squad turned in its best NCAA effort with a 19th-place finish. Gal Nevo was an All-American in both the 200-IM and 400-IM as well as being named ACC Swimmer of the Year. His mark in the 400-IM was the second-fastest in NCAA history and third-fastest in the world. Nigel Plummer was named the ACC Freshman of the Year, the first time a Georgia Tech swimmer earned either swimmer of freshman of the year awards in school history. All told, 24 school records were broken during the 2008-09 season between the men’s and women’s teams and a school-record nine men’s swimmers participated in the NCAA Championships.
Senior All-American Hannah Krimm returns to lead a deep and young diving team this season that has coach John Ames very excited about the potential.
“On the women’s side, we have Hannah [Krimm] and Michele [Bertolino] returning,” said Ames. “Hannah was the teams highest individual point scorer for the women last year and Michele scored on both the One meter and Three meter boards. The competition for the spots at NCAA’s this year will be tough because there are only eight spots available in the Southeast Zone for the women.
“On the men’s side we have two freshmen in Chris Khosravi and Brandon Makinson joining sophomore David Springfels,” added Ames. “Both had to miss a few weeks at the beginning of the year to attend meets. Chris was at the Jr. Pan Am games in Calgary and Brandon was at the Canadian Summer Games, where he finished first on the 1 meter. The outlook for the men’s team is much more favorable than the past two years and even more so over the next four. Entering Tech, Chris and Brandon are two of the best we have had. Between their hard work and personality, what they bring to the team has already made my job easier. Practices are very productive and fun, and with Hannah as a leader, it will be very competitive as well.”
