Sept. 29, 2016
THE FLATS – Georgia Tech swimming and diving will take to the water for competition for the first time this season as the Yellow Jackets host Georgia Southern on Friday, Sept. 30, at 4 p.m. at the McAuley Aquatic Center.
“We are excited to compete this Friday and to start our season at home in McAuley,” stated head coach Courtney Shealy Hart. “We are looking to set a tone for this season early and for our team to come out and compete hard in each and every event.”
With the Eagles fielding only a women’s team, the dual meet will between just the two women’s squads, however, the men’s team for the Yellow Jackets will be swimming in a number of events as well on the day.
Led by captains Andrea Demick, Morgan Lyons and Chiara Ruiu, the 2016-17 Tech women’s swimming and diving team returns 17 Jackets from last year’s squad. In addition to Ruiu, who set a new school record in both the 200 breast (2:12.90) and the 200 IM (2:00.97) events last season, record holders Iris Wang, Maddie Paschal, Florina Ilie, Alex Rieger, Kira de Bruyn, Laura Branton and Lyons all return to the pool for Coach Shealy Hart and the Yellow Jackets this year.
Last year Wang set records in the 100 free (48.97) and the 200 free (1:46.94), while Paschal and Ilie registered Tech records in the 100 back (54.10) and the 100 breast (1:01.78) events, respectively. Rieger, Lyons, Paschal and Ruiu posted a new school record last year in the 200 free relay (1:31.62), while Wang, de Bruyn and Ruiu were all part of the relay units that tallied Tech records in both the 400 free relay (3:20.51) and the 800 free relay (7:12.73) events. The team of Paschal, Ilie, Branton and Wang hold the school record in both the 200 medley relay (1:39.92) and the 400 medley relay (3.39.92) events.
In the Yellow Jackets’ final tune-up last weekend, the 2016-17 squad set a total of 15 new intrasquad meet records in the White vs. Gold Intrasquad meet, including eight records on the women’s side.
Transfer Kaitlin Kitchens set a new intrasquad record in the 50 free (23.70), while Wang posted records in both the 100 free (50.94) and the 200 free (1:51.59) at the White vs. Gold meet. Freshmen Emily Ilgenfritz and Kristen Hepler posted records in the 1000 free (10:33.27) and the 200 breast (2:23.55), respectively, while Rieger turned in a new intrasquad meet record in the 200 back (2:04.71).
The relay unit of Kitchens, Ruiu, Rieger and Paschal set a new White vs. Gold record in the 200 free relay (1:36.07), while Sara Gilbert, Ilie, Ilgenfritz and Wang ended the two-day meet with a record in the 400 medley relay (3:50.48).
The dual meet versus Georgia Southern is the first of five home events for the Yellow Jackets over the rest of the 2016 calendar year.
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