Feb. 21, 2004
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – After breaking the school record in the 100-yard freestyle this morning in the preliminaries, sophomore Elizabeth Foster bettered her time in the finals tonight with a time of 51.49 to finish fourth at the Women’s Atlantic Coast Conference Championships. Freshman Vesna Stojanovska and sophomore Ashley Kracke finished fourth and fifth in the 200 butterfly and 200 backstroke with times of 2:02.25 and 2:02.59 to lead the Yellow Jackets to a sixth-place finish, scoring 282 points in their third year of existence. Virginia captured the ACC crown for the second straight year, tallying 675 points.
“We had an up and down week,” said head coach Seth Baron. “We overcame some injuries and illnesses and I thought the athletes did a nice job. We battled with Clemson for the fifth spot and they edged us by 12 points, which was a big improvement from a year ago when they finished 100 points ahead of us. We had some great performances over the course of the week and broke all the school records in the relay events.”
Sophomore diver Laurissa Prystaj tallied a school record score of 463.80 in the three-meter, 11-dive event for the Jackets to finish fifth at the ACC meet, posting the highest finish by a Tech female diver at the championships.
The 400 free relay team of Natanya Harper, Foster, Moeko Wallis and Jaclyn Keys posted a school record time of 3:27.35 to finish fifth for the Rambling Wreck.
Freshman Alison Walker improved her 200 breaststroke time in the finals tonight with a season-best time of 2:19.16 to finish 10th in the event.
Pacing the Jackets in the 1650 free were juniors Ann Battle and Michelle Maguire. Battle broke the school record with a time of 17:05.06 to finish 15th. Maguire finished 20th in the mile with a time of 17:22.92.
Junior Anna Saum and Maguire tallied top-20 finishes in the 200 back for the Yellow Jackets. Saum posted a season-best time of 2:04.28 to finish 15th, while Maguire finished 20th with a 2:07.74.
Juniors Jennifer Christenson and Jill Vukmanic also competed in the ‘Bonus’ finals for Tech tonight. Vukmanic tallied an 18th-place finish in the 200 fly with a time of 2:07.00 and Christenson finished 21st in the 100 free with a season-best time of 52.95.
Florida State’s Emma Dutton and Tiffany Manning were named ACC Swimmer and Diver of the Meet.
The Georgia Tech men’s swimming and diving team will compete in the ACC Championships Feb. 25-28, on the campus of the University of Virginia.
FINAL TEAM STANDINGS
1. Virginia – 675 pts.
2. North Carolina – 623.5 pts.
3. Florida State – 611 pts.
4. Maryland – 506 pts.
5. Clemson – 294.5 pts.
6. Georgia Tech – 282 pts.
7. Duke – 262 pts.
8. NC State – 229 pts.
-GT SWIMMING & DIVING-
