Jackets finish 29th in team standings, score at NCAA meet for first time in school history
College Station, TX – Georgia Tech sophomore swimmers Shilo Ayalon (Kfar Hanassi, Israel) and Tomonori Tsuji (Osaka, Japan) each earned honorable mention All-America honors on the final day of competition at the NCAA Championships. The three-day meet was held at the Texas A&M Student Recreation Natatorium in College Station, Texas.
The Yellow Jackets finished the meet with 10 points, which was good for 29th place overall. The score and team finish marked the first time in school history that Tech had scored at the NCAA meet.
Ayalon opened the day as he competed in his third event of the NCAA meet, the 1650-yard freestyle. He finished the event with the 11th-best time by clocking in with a 15:01.76. Michigan’s Chris Thompson blitzed the pool in the event as he set a new American, NCAA, U.S. Open and pool record with his time of 14:26.62.
Tsuji followed Ayalon’s performance with a record-setting performance of his own in 200-yard breaststroke, as he set a new Georgia Tech school mark in the prelims of the event. His time of 1:58.53 in the opening heat qualified him for the consolation finals. During the evening session, Tsuji swam a time of 1:58.37, to break his own school record of 1:58.46 by .09 seconds and gave him a 13th-place finish and honorable mention All-America recognition. Brendan Hansen of Texas won the event with a time of 1:53.11.
A number of Tech swimmers will be in action in the coming weeks by competing at the U.S. Championships.
