Sept. 30, 2004
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will kick start the 2004-05 season this Friday at 5 p.m. with its annual Gold versus White intrasquad meet at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center. The meet will be part of the Grand Opening of the new Campus Recreation Center that runs Sept. 29-Oct. 2.
“It should be a great opportunity for our freshman in a meet situation,” said head coach Seth Baron. “The Intrasquad meet is a fun opportunity to get our athletes ready for the actual dual meet competitions. It allows us an opportunity to evaluate our athletes and see how much progress they have made during the early part of our season. It should be a lot of fun. Everybody wins.”
The Gold team will be led by returning All-American Sam Morgan. Morgan finished 15th in the 1500-meter freestyle last season at the NCAA Championships to garner All-America honors.
Also swimming on the Gold team for Tech will be juniors Liz Foster and Ashley Kracke. Foster broke the school record in the women’s 100 freestyle, while Kracke posted a NCAA `B’ cut time in the 200 backstroke at last year’s Atlantic Coast Conference Championships.
Headlining the White team for the Jackets will be All-ACC performer Ryan Bishop. The sophomore finished third at the ACC meet in the 400 individual medley to become the 11th Tech athlete to earn all-conference honors.
Senior captain Matt Figh will join Bishop on the White team. Figh tied the school record in the 200 freestyle last season and posted NCAA `B’ cut times in both the 200 and 500 freestyle events.
For the women, seniors Moeko Wallis and Anna Saum will swim with the White team. Wallis broke her own school record in the 50 free last year and Saum is the school record holder in the 100 back, and the only women’s athlete to earn All-ACC honors, doing so at the 2002 ACC meet.
Freshman Chris Ewald and Onur Uras will also participate on the White squad. Ewald competed on the United States National Junior Team this past summer and Uras swam the 100 butterfly in the Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
All home events in the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center are free admission. The Yellow Jacket men will get the regular season underway on Oct. 21 against Tennessee in the GTAC. The men’s dual meet is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
Both the men and women will travel to in-state rival Georgia for a combined dual meet on Oct. 23. That meet is slated for 11 a.m.
-GT SWIMMING & DIVING-
