Boston College hosted Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech in a three-way battle on Saturday afternoon.
Georgia Tech Press Release
THE FLATS – The Georgia Tech swimming and diving team posted a strong start to its Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) season on Saturday afternoon, as the men’s team swept both host Boston College and Pittsburgh, while the women’s team routed the Eagles, but fell to the Panthers at the Boston College Flynn Complex Pool in Chestnut Hill, Mass.
The men’s team outscored Boston College 231-68 and bested Pittsburgh 199-100. The women’s team defeated Boston College 249-50, but fell to Pittsburgh 162-137.
Men’s Highlights
Junior Moises Loschi recorded three wins on the afternoon, finishing first in the 1000 free (9:37.22), in the 100 breast (55.64) and in the 500 free (4:34.89). Both of his winning times in the 100 breast and 500 free sets new Flynn Complex Pool records.
Co-captain Rodrigo Quadros Correia also scored multiple wins on the day with his first-place showings in the 200 free (1:38.04) and the 100 free (44.73), both of which were new Flynn Complex Pool records.
Senior Ben Southern earned a win at the 200 fly with his time of 1:50.16, also a new pool record, while fellow upperclassman Alex Goerzen touched the wall first in the 200 back with a time of 1:50.80. Goerzen finished just in front of both Robert Borowicz (1:51.48) and Mark Keaveney (1:51.78) who placed second and fourth overall for the event.
Southern also finished first overall and recorded a new pool record in the 100 fly with a time of 49.16, as he led a swarm of Yellow Jackets that finished in each of the top four spots in the following order – Southern, Clay Hering (50.65), Brian Woodbury (50.82) and Brad Oberg (50.95).
The Yellow Jackets took 1-2 in the 200 breast event, as Alex Kimpel won the race with a time of 2:07.32, edging fellow Tech swimmer Joseph Portillo and his time of 2:07.43.
Freshman Brennan Day took runner-up honors in the 1000 free with a time of 9:41.23, while fellow freshman Hering took second-place in the 200 fly with his time of 1:50.92. Day also finished third overall in the 500 free with a time of 4:43.92.
Newcomer Austin Whalen picked up a fifth-place finish in the 200 free with his time of 1:43.57.
In the 100 back, Woodbury (49.88), Goerzen (50.59), Keaveney (50.78) and Borowicz (51.01) touched the wall in second, third, fourth and fifth, while in the 100 breast the Jackets took first, third and fourth overall by way of Loschi, Kimpel (59.32) and Portillo (59.56).
Tech also dominated the 50 free, as Aidan Pastel recorded his first intercollegiate win with a time of 21.13, placing just ahead of fellow Jackets Oskar Zimowski and Noah Harasz who placed in a tie for second-place overall with identical times of 21.18.
Harasz (47.04) and Zimowski (47.07) also finished back-to-back in fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 100 free event.
Other top-five finishes on the day included Kimpel (1:55.37) and Manuel Barragan (1:56.17) placing fourth and fifth in the 200 IM.
In the 200 medley relay, the Yellow Jackets finished first, fourth and fifth overall with the ‘A’ team of Correia, Loschi, Southern and Harasz picking up the win with a time of 1:31.00, a new BC pool record, while the ‘A’ team of Harasz, Southern, Zimowski and Correia touched the wall in first in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:04.95.
The ‘B’ team of Pastel, Keaveney, Hering and Woodbury placed second with a time of 3:07.09, while the ‘C’ squad of Borowicz, Oberg, Whalen and Goerzen finished fifth at 3:11.49 in the 400 free relay event.
In the diving events, Matt Casillas took first-place overall in the 3-meter dive with a score of 314.75 and placed second at the 1-meter dive with 307.15 points.
Fellow diver Omar Eteiba placed third in the 1-meter dive (277.60) and fourth in the 3-meter (253.95) event.
Women’s Highlights
Sophomore Iris Wang led the Yellow Jackets on the women’s side of the double dual meet, as she posted wins in the 200 free (1:52.30) and the 100 free (51.21), the latter being a pool complex record, while newcomer Kaitlin Kitchens set a season-best time of 23.51 to win the 50 free, besting Wang who took third overall with a time of 23.78, and picked up a first-place finish in the 100 fly with a time of 56.54.
Four freshmen finished 1-4 in the 200 fly led by Emily Ilgenfritz’s first-place time of 2:07.11. Tamir Gonen Cohen (2:08.20), Maddie Oliver (2:08.74) and Chloe Miller (2:09.03) rounded out the top-four in the event.
Ilgenfritz also finished runner-up in the 1000 free with a time of 10:26.15 and in the 500 free with a time of 5:05.79.
Three Tech swimmers registered top-five finishes in the 100 back, as Maddie Paschal placed second (57.23) ahead of both Sara Gilbert (57.29) and Alex Rieger (58.49) who touched the wall in fourth and fifth, respectively, while in the 100 breast event Florina Ilie (1:05.25) and Chiara Ruiu (1:05.28) finished in fourth and fifth-place overall as well.
In the 200 breast, Ruiu (2:21.75), Kristen Hepler (2:22.16) and Ilie (2:24.93) touched the wall in third, fourth and fifth, respectively, while in the 200 IM event Ruiu (2:08.12), Hepler (2:08.18) and Kira de Bruyn (2:09.89) placed second, third and fifth overall.
Behind Kitchen’s win in the 100 fly event for the Yellow Jackets were both Morgan Lyons (57.10) and Miller (58.21), who placed second and fourth, respectively.
Other top-five finishes included Rieger’s second-place showing in the 200 back (2:02.43), Megan Hansen’s third-place finish in the 100 free (53.19) and Paschal’s fourth-place finish in the 200 back (2:04.85), while Sara Al Khatib finished fourth in the 200 fly (10:46.91) and Kelli Croft placed fifth in the 500 free (5:15.77).
The relay team of Paschal, Ilie, Lyons and Kitchens placed first in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:44.79, matching the pool record time for the event and finishing four spots ahead of the ‘B’ team of Gilbert, Hepler, Miller and Hansen and their time of 1:49.51.
In the 400 free relay, the Tech ‘A’ team of Wang, Kitchens, Ilgenfritz and Ruiu touched the wall in first-place overall with a time of 3:27.75, a new pool record, while the ‘B’ team of Hansen, Lyons, de Bruyn and Rieger placed third with their time of 3:33.25. The ‘C’ team of Gonen Cohen, Lila Best, Lindsay Wallace and Miller took fifth overall with a time of 3:42.35.
Freshman Carly Doi placed third overall with a career-best score of 237.15 to lead the Jackets in the 1-meter dive and turned in a score of 238.30 for a fifth-place showing in the 3-meter diving event.
The Yellow Jackets will return to the water on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 21 and 22, to host Notre Dame at the McAuley Aquatic Center.
Pittsburgh Press Release
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass.—The Pitt swimming & diving teams opened the 2016-17 season Saturday afternoon with a successful opening meet against a pair of ACC foes, sweeping host Boston College in both men’s and women’s team competition and splitting with Georgia Tech.
The Pitt women (2-0, 2-0 ACC) earned a dominating 237-62 victory over the Eagles (0-2, 0-2 ACC) and edged the Yellow Jackets (1-1, 1-1 ACC) by a 162-137 team score. The Pitt men (1-1, 1-1 ACC) were also able to defeat Boston College (0-2, 0-2 ACC) by a 203-96 score but were downed by a talented Georgia Tech (2-0, 2-0 ACC) roster by a 199-100 margin.
New Pitt head coach John Hargis, who earned his first victories as the leader of the Panthers, was particularly impressed with the Pitt women’s team and some of the freshmen on his rosters.
“The women were what we thought they would be; the men need to improve,” Hargis said. “As coaches, we’re working on instilling confidence in the team to help them reach their potential. Having confidence in your ability is such a major factor in swimming at this level. We’ll get to where we need to be.”
“I was really pleased with how our freshmen women performed,” Hargis added. “They were really strong and helped us in some crucial events. On the men’s side, Samy Helmbacher stood out as a freshman with lots of talent who could be a major factor for us this season and beyond.”
In total, seven different Panthers won a total of 12 events.
Amanda Richey (500 free, 1000 free), Valerie Daigneault (100 back, 200 back, 200 IM), Henrique Machado (100 back), Kinga Cichowska (100 breast, 200 breast), Meme Sharp (1M, 3M dive), Joe Ference (1M dive) and Zach Lierley (200 IM) all emerged victorious in their events, earning maximum team points for their team.
Pitt improved to 3-0 on the women’s side against Georgia Tech since joining the ACC, while the both the Panthers’ teams earned their first victories over Boston College as members of the conference.
The Panthers have two weeks to prepare for their next meet, a challenging test at Virginia on Oct. 21.
