Feb. 18, 2011
ATLANTA – On day three of the ACC Championships, the Georgia Tech swimming and diving squads set four school records on their home turf of the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. Their efforts helped propel them up into a tie for ninth place with Clemson University, tallying 108 total points.
“We had four school records today and were able to close the gap on some of our competitors,” said Head Coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “These girls had some great swims today and to break four school records in one night is very impressive. Tomorrow we have to finish strong and do well in the morning to score points at night. We always talk about finishing races, now we need to finish this meet.” Many career bests were set in the finals, amongst them, Keren Siebner’s career best and school record time of 54.48 seconds in the 100-Fly. Siebner finished 10th in the event, the runner-up in the B-Finals. She was followed in the finals by Vida Jemec and Christine Chuang who set season best times of 55.90 and 56.08 respectively.
Also setting a school record was junior Heidi Hatteberg. The captain knocked .03 seconds off of her time from the prelims for a school record and career best time of 54.66 in the 100-Back. Following suit was Jessie Mason who took 13th in the 100-Back finals with a time of 55.00 seconds, the third fastest time in school history.
Hen Pauker saw much success on the day, making it to her first ACC scoring finals as a Jacket. The senior finished 15th overall in the 100-Breast with a career best time of 1:03.50, also the third fastest time in school history. Morgan Trickett also took part in the finals rounding out the pack with a 24th place finish in a time of 1:05.23.
The Jackets finished out the night strong with a sixth place, school record breaking time of 3:42.02 in the 400-Medley Relay. The race was led by captain Hatteberg and anchored by Lexi Weber with the job of the two middle legs going to Pauker and Siebner.
In the diving events, Brandon Makinson set yet another school record with his fifth place showing in the 1-meter dive, this time with a finish of 360.35. The record broke Evan Stowers’ record of 351.00 set in 2006. Makinson moved up two spots in the final from his seventh place preliminary final to add even more points to the Jackets’ total before the men’s swimmers begin competition next week. Christopher Khosravi also added to the Jackets’ point total with his 16th place finish in the event earning 301.90 points.
On the women’s side of diving, Helen Alvey finished just inside the scorer’s taking 16th place with a total of 264.45 while Ashley Hardy earned a 25th place finish tallying 240.75 points.
The Jackets look to close out the meet with a strong showing on Saturday, as they finish their time at the ACC Championships.
