Feb. 19, 2011
ATLANTA – Behind two school records, the Georgia Tech swimming and diving squads rounded out the first week of the ACC Championships, earning a ninth place finish with a total point score of 152, leaping Clemson in the final relay.
“The girls raced very hard this week and broke four school records and the men’s diving broke each of the school records,” said Head Coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “We are looking forward to next week, we set ourselves up really well and we will get back into the competition next Wednesday.” Heidi Hatteberg helped set her third school record in two days with her 200-Back performance. The junior captain recorded a personal best time of 1:56.98 en route to winning the B-Final and notching an NCAA B qualifying time. Alongside Hatteberg were Kate Riley and Sarah Broadley in the 100-Free finals. Riley moved from 22nd place into 19th finishing in 51.25 while Broadley took 22nd in 51.50.
Yet another diving school record was broken, this time as Chris Khosravi took sixth in the platform dive with a score of 375.90. Narrowly making the finals, the sophomore took the eighth and final spot in prelims by just a mere three points, but jumped up two spots with his outstanding finish. Brandon Makinson, who set the school record in both the one and three-meter springboard earlier in the week, took 15th with a total of 245.95 to add a couple more points to the men’s total, entering their meet next week. Makinson has tallied at least one point in every event he has competed in on the week.
“Chris struggled a little bit getting into the finals, like he did last year, but after getting in a little bit of the pressure is off and he really shows what he can do,” said Head Coach John Ames. “The most exciting thing about the weekend is the three school records being broken and the boys making the final in all three events. Evan [Stowers] was here tonight but was watching the other days on the live stream and as he said in his own words, those records were made to be broken and I know that he genuinely feels that way.” On the women’s side, Helen Alvey took 21st with a score of 193.30 points while Ashley Hardy tallied 183.85 points in their off event.
The 200-Fly saw two swimmers in the finals as Jordan Evans leaped three spots to 21st place with a time of 2:03.76 while Kristen Dornstauder earned a 23rd place finish with a time of 2:04.18. The final, finalist for the Jackets was Hailey White who narrowly missed out on earning points for her team with a 17th place finish in the lengthy 1,650-Free with a time of 17:09.71, a season best and the fifth-fastest in school history.
The final event of the meet, the 400-Free Relay, the Jackets set the second best time in school history finishing with a fourth place performance of 3:21.64. The finish helped them to leap Clemson in the standings for the ninth place finish.
The men’s swimmers will begin their competition on Wednesday, February 23 with the 200-Medley Relay and the 800-Free Relay.
