ATLANTA — The Georgia Tech men’s swimming and diving team is in seventh place after the first day of competition at the ACC Championships in Charlottesville, Va. The Yellow Jackets set four school records on the day, including bettering two records set in the morning prelims.
Tech finished the day with 96 points, and trails day one leader and defending champion Virginia (256.5 points) entering the second day of competition.
The Jackets opened the evening session in the 200 freestyle relay, and promptly broke their first record of the night. The team of Brendan Forbes, Jorge Oliver, David Laitala and Josh Hersko turned in a time of 1:22.78, bettering the previous school mark by over a second.
In the night’s next event, Shilo Ayalon cracked the record books in the 500-yard freestyle with his time of 4:23.45, which topped his prelim time of 4:24.09, and set a new Georgia Tech best. Ayalon finished fourth in the final heat behind freshman Ian Pritchard of Virginia, who shattered the ACC record in the event with an NCAA Automatic qualifying time of 4:16.32. Junior Leo Salinas placed second in the consolation final with his personal season-best time of 4:25.69, and freshmen Itai Eden and Eddy Oliver were 15th and 22nd with their times of 4:32.05 and 4:39.24 respectively.
Junior David Laitala continued the Yellow Jacket record-book assault as he finished fifth in the 200 IM with a time of 1:49.31. That time bettered Laitala’s prelim time of 1:49.33, and set a new Tech school mark, along with being an NCAA “B” qualifying time. Freshman Chris Biedrzycki and junior Carl Nylander were 19th and 22nd in the event with times of 1:51.66 and 1:53.36.
The Jackets’ 400 medley relay team closed out the record-setting evening, as the quartet of Jorge Oliver, Tomonori Tsuji, Laitala and Hersko recorded an NCAA “B” time of 3:18.75 to finish fourth and set a new school best. The time bettered the previous record by just under three seconds.
Tech had a pair of swimmers in the bonus consolation of the 50-yard freestyle, as Forbes and Hersko placed 20th and 21st with times of 20.97 and 21.02 respectively.
The ACC Championships continue on Friday with prelims scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., and finals slated to start at 7 p.m.
