ATLANTA (Oct. 7) – Theral Mackey, a June graduate of Georgia Tech, has qualified for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, to be held in Indianapolis, Ind., August 9-16, 2000. Mackey qualified in the 100 meter Breaststroke with a time of 1:05.37 at the U.S. National Championships in Minneapolis, Minn.
Mackey set the Tech school record in the 100 breaststroke last year with a time of 56.20 at the Atlantic Coast Conference championship meet.
“Theral has had a wonderful year of swimming,” said Tech head coach Seth Baron. “He established his first-ever NCAA B-standard time in the 100 yard breastroke at the ACC Championship while placing sixth. Now, he has moved up one more level to the U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying meet.
“To the best of my knowledge, he is the first-ever swimmer from Georgia Tech to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. This makes a very strong statement for the positive direction that the Tech swimming program is moving in. I have made it known that we have a team goal to place a swimmer on the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team for Athens, Greece and this is a very important first step.”
A year ago, Tech was 6-7 in dual meets and placed seventh in the ACC Championship meet with 192.5 points. The Jackets open the 1999-2000 campaign Friday by hosting Virginia Tech at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center at 2 p.m.
