ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men*s swimming and diving team remained unbeaten in the young season with an impressive 163-66 victory over visiting Louisiana-Monroe on Friday night at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.
The Yellow Jackets (2-0) were led by sophomore Josh Hersko (Marietta, Ga.), who opened the night by anchoring the Tech 400 medley relay team to a record-breaking win in the meet*s first event. Hersko, along with sophomores Jorge Oliver (Jacksonville, Fla.) and Tomonori Tsuji (Osaka, Japan) along with junior David Laitala (Richardson, Texas) set a new Georgia Tech Aquatic Center pool record of 3:27.87, eclipsing the previous mark by nearly three seconds.
Hersko continued his strong performance in the 50-yard freestyle event, as he won the race in a time of 21.87, just out-touching Tech teammate Jorge Oliver. He then captured his second individual event of the evening in the 100 free, as he won with a time of 47.55, missing the pool record by just under a second in both the 50 and 100.
Sophomore Shilo Ayalon (Kfar Hanassi, Israel) remained unbeaten in the 500- and 1,000-yard freestyle events, as he won the 1,000 free with a time of 9:38.03, which was 10 seconds better than Jacket teammate James Salazar (Huntsville, Ala.), who had a time of 9:48.62. In the 500 free, Ayalon was once again dominant winning by over six seconds with a time of 4:38.01.
Georgia Tech*s third two-event winner of the night was senior diver Dustin Thorn (Marietta, Ga.), who captured victories in both the one- and three-meter diving events. Thorn first won the one-meter competition with a score of 200.10, and then captured the three-meter competition with a score of 213.23, winning by over 100 points.
Other event winners for Tech included Laitala, who won the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:56.10, freshman Itai Eden (Qiryat-Ono, Israel), who was the winner of the 200 butterfly with his time of 1:55.83, and Scott Lenyk (Suwanee, Ga.) in the 200 backstroke (1:54.19). Also Tsuji won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:08.68.
Louisiana-Monroe*s lone event win was by Raul Arismendi in the 200 freestyle, as he won with a time of 1:42.53.
The Yellow Jackets will return to action next Saturday, when they open their ACC schedule by facing Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla.
