ATLANTA (Dec. 5) – Georgia Tech’s men’s swimming & diving team scored 138 points Sunday to pass Clemson and Miami (Fla.) to finish fourth in the Georgia Fall Invitational held at the Gabrielsen Natatorium in Athens, Ga. Freshman Jorge Oliver (Jacksonville, Fla.) set Tech’s third school record in as many days to help the Yellow Jackets move up in the standings.
The host Bulldogs, ranked seventh, won the event with 1,101 points, No. 11 Tennessee was second with 957.5 points, No. 12 Alabama was third with 594 points, Tech was fourth with 453 points, Clemson was fifth with 445 points and Miami (Fla.) was sixth with 276.5 points. Tech entered the day 56 points behind the Tigers.
During the three-day event, Tech had 17 placements in the championship finals (top eight) and 20 placements in the consolation finals (nine-16) that count toward point scoring. The morning preliminaries were contested in short-course yards, while the finals were contested in short-course meters.
Oliver swam a 1:51.55 during the 200 yard backstroke during the preliminary round to break the previous record of 1:52.92 set by Ryan Shanteau a year ago. He joined freshman Shilo Ayalon (Kfar Hanassi, Israel), who set a new school mark in the 500 freestyle at 4:31.78 and Josh Hersko (Marietta, Ga.), who registered a new school record in the 200 freestyle in 1:40.63. Tech had three other swimmers score in the 200 backstroke as freshmen Scott Lenyk (Suwanee, Ga.) and James Salazar (Huntsville, Ala.) placed 10th and 11th, respectively, and sophomore Carl Nylander (Tucker, Ga.) finished 13th for the Jackets. Hersko paced Tech in the 100 meter freestyle as he placed 14th in 52.55 seconds and was followed by Oliver, who finished 16th in 54.54 seconds.
Freshman Tomonori Tsuji (Osaka, Japan) had Tech’s highest finish of the Invitational as he placed second in the 200 meter breaststroke in 2:16.59 and just missed an NCAA Championship provisional mark by a mere .04-hundreths of a second. A day ago, he provisionally qualified in the 100 meter breaststroke in 1:02.67 to be the first Tech athlete to do so this year. Nylander placed 11th in 2:23.77 and freshman Robbie Foster (Frankfort, Ky.) was 13th in 2:23.86 to score for Tech.
Sophomore David Laitala (Richardson, Texas) finished a strong meet for Tech by placing eighth in the 200 meter butterfly in 2:08.56 and in the preliminary round, he swam Techs third-best time ever with a 1:51.92, which missed an NCAA provisional time by just two seconds. He was Tech’s top finisher in the 400 individual medley as he swam a 4:34.22 in the finals to place eighth, and was seventh in the 200 individual medley and eighth in the 100 butterfly to place in the championship finals of four events. Sophomore Charles Gersbach (Tabernacle, N.J.) was 10th in the 200 butterfly in 2:06.10 and sophomore Leo Salinas (Monterrey, Mexico) was 15th in 2:10.76 to score for Tech.
Ayalon paced Tech in the 1,650-yard freestyle as he was 10th in 16:02.73, while Salinas was 11th in 16:10 to contribute toward Techs scoring effort.
Freshman Ross Dye (Marietta, Ga.) and sophomore Brady Skaggs (Jacksonville, Fla.) each won bonus consolation finals. Dye won the 200 breaststroke, while Skaggs captured the 200 butterfly.
Tech’s 400 freestyle relay A team placed seventh in 3:28.47, while the B squad was eighth in 3:22.88 to register crucial points for the Jackets.
Tech will next be in action January 8 when it faces Air Force during a holiday training trip to the U.S. Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Georgia Tech Results
Day One
Note: (p) preliminaries swam in short-course yards, (f) finals swam in short-course meters
* 200 Freestyle Relay: 8. GT-A, 1:35.67 (f) (Ross Dye, Jorge Oliver, Josh Hersko, David Laitala); 9. GT-B, 1:37.29 (f) (Scott Lenyk, Robbie Foster, James Nozar, Eric Hunter).
* 400 meter Freestyle: 4. Shilo Ayalon, 3:57.85 (f); 6. Leo Salinas, 4:00.42 (f); 17. Hank Longmire, 4:02.20 (f); 26. James Nozar, 4:50.60; 28 (p). Mark Campbell, 4:52.95 (p); 31. David Silver, 4:56.11 (p); 32. Brady Skaggs, 4:57.52 (p).
* 200 Individual Medley: 7. David Laitala, 2:09.49 (f); 15. Carl Nylander, 2:08.78 (f); 19. Jorge Oliver, 2:09.71 (f); 20. Tomonori Tsuji, 2:10.14 (f); 26. Travis McQuinn, 1:57.66 (p); 33. Charlie Gersbach, 2:01.63 (p).
* 50 Freestyle: 26. Ross Dye, 21.53 (p); 29. Josh Hersko, 21.73 (p); 36. Eric Hunter, 22.06 (p); 38. Scott Lenyk, 22.13 (p); 45. David Silver, 22.67 (p); 51. Travis McQuinn, 22.90 (p); 56. John Fennessy, 23.65 (p).
* 3-Meter Diving: 15. Ben Dannemann, 273.45
* 400 Medley Relay: 7. GT-A, 3:51.75 (f) (David Laitala, Tomonori Tsuji, James Nozar, Jorge Oliver); 9. GT-B, 3:52.89 (f) (Scott Lenyk, Ross Dye, Charlie Gersbach, Josh Hersko).
Day Two
Note: (p) preliminaries swam in short-course yards, (f) finals swam in short-course meters
* 100 Butterfly: 8. David Laitala, 56.49 (f); 17. Charlie Gersbach, 57.63 (f); 19. James Nozar, 58.38 (f); 22. Robbie Foster, 59.71 (f); 23. Brady Skaggs, 59.96 (f); 24. Eric Hunter, 1:00.93 (f); 31. John Fennessy, 54.34 (p); 32. Tomonori Tsuji, 54.88 (p).
* 200 Freestyle: 8. Josh Hersko, 1:55.37 (f); 12. Shilo Ayalon, 1:54.25 (f); 17. Leo Salinas, 1:54.45 (f); 23. Mark Campbell, 1:56.98 (f); 24. Scott Lenyk, 1:57.70 (f); 25. Leo Salinas, 1:44.76 (p); 35. Hank Longmire, 1:46.64 (p); 36. David Silver, 1:46.75 (p);
* 100 Breaststroke: 5. Tomonori Tsuji, 1:02.67 (f); 7. Robbie Foster, 1:04.75; 8. Ross Dye, 1:05.15; 14. Travis McQuinn, 1:05.82 (f).
* 100 Backstroke: 12. Jorge Oliver, 58.12 (f); 17. Scott Lenyk, 59.15 (f); 20. James Nozar, 1:01.44 (f); 22. Mark Campbell, 1:02.99 (f).
* 400 Individual Medley: 8. David Laitala, 4:34.22 (f); 10. Shilo Ayalon, 4:29.38 (f); 14. Carl Nylander, 4:37.98 (f); 23. Hank Longmire, 4:42.73 (f); 24. James Nozar, 4:49.73 (f); 25. James Salazar, 4:15.00 (p); 26. Charlie Gersbach, 4:17.58 (p).
* 200 Medley Relay: 9. GT-A, 1:44.83 (f) (Jorge Oliver, Tomonori Tsuji, David Laitala, Ross Dye); 10. GT-B, 1:47.58 (f) (Scott Lenyk, Robbie Foster, James Nozar, Josh Hersko).
* 800 Freestyle Relay: 4. GT-A, 7:41.21 (f) (Shilo Ayalon, Josh Hersko, Leo Salinas, Ross Dye); 9. GT-B, 7:50.95 (f) (Mark Campbell, David Laitala, Hank Longmire, Scott Lenyk).
* 1-Meter Diving: 15. Ben Dannemann, 293.9.
Day Three
Note: (p) preliminaries swam in short-course yards, (f) finals swam in short-course meters
* 200 Backstroke: 8. Jorge Oliver, 2:05.99 (f); 10. Scott Lenyk, 2:04.30 (f); 11. James Salazar, 2:07.18 (f); 13. Carl Nylander, 2:07.79 (f); 19. Hank Longmire, 2:01.98 (p).
* 100 Freestyle: 14. Josh Hersko, 52.55 (f); 16. Jorge Oliver, 54.54 (f); 28. Ross Dye, 47.81 (p); 31. Mark Campbell, 48.08 (p); 33. Eric Hunter, 48.55 (p); 38. David Silver, 49.27 (p); 40. James Nozar, 49.69 (p); 44. John Fennessy, 55.13 (p).
* 200 Breaststroke: 2. Tomonori Tsuji, 2:16.59 (f); 11. Carl Nylander, 2:23.77 (f); 12. Robbie Foster, 2:23.86 (f); 17. Ross Dye, 2:21.23 (f); 18. Travis McQuinn, 2:28.01 (f).
* 200 Butterfly: 8. David Laitala, 2:08.56 (f); 10. Charlie Gersbach, 2:06.10 (f); 15. Leo Salinas, 2:10.76 (f); 17. Brady Skaggs, 2:11.11 (f); 22. James Salazar, 2:00.87 (p); 24. James Nozar, 2:02.37 (p).
* 1,650 (yds.) Freestyle: 10. Shilo Ayalon, 16:02.73; 11. Leo Salinas, 16:10.49; 19. Brady Skaggs, 16:59.64.
* 400 Freestyle Relay: 7. GT-A, 3:28.47 (f) (David Laitala, Josh Hersko, Ross Dye, Shilo Ayalon); 8. GT-B, 3:32.88 (f) (Jorge Oliver, Eric Hunter, Mark Campbell, David Silver).
