Georgia Tech Freestylers Shine at Annual White/Gold Scrimmage

by Jeff Gonder 0

September 27th, 2014 ACC, College, News, Previews & Recaps

Strong freestyle performances by juniors Erika Staskevicius and Andrew Kosic highlighted Georgia Tech’s annual White/Gold Intrasquad Scrimmage, held Friday at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center (GTAC) in Atlanta.

Freestyle Double Act

“I was impressed by both Andrew Kosic and Erika Staskevicius, who both performed really well today,” said head coach Courtney Shealy Hart in a Georgia Tech press release.

Staskevicius’s win in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events led the way for the Gold team’s 104-85 win over the White team. Staskevicius, whose hometown is Woodstock, GA, clocked a 24.04 and a 52.61, which are fine early-season times but off her best (23.60 and 51.05) that she swam last season as a freshman.

Freshmen Alex Rieger and Morgan Lyons followed Staskevicius in the 50 freestyle with 24.26 and 24.42, giving promise to a solid sprint future for the women at Georgia Tech.  Staskevicius’s 100 freestyle performance was nearly a two second win over fellow junior Efrat Rotsztejn, who clocked a 54.02.

Staskevicius continued her winning ways for her Gold team by anchoring the women’s 200 medley relay and leading the 400 freestyle relay with a 52.95.

Kosic, who earned All-America honors last season in the 50-yard freestyle, led the White team with wins in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle (44.51 and 1:40.30), beating out (in both events) the 6’1” freshmen Noah Harasz from St. Petersburg, Fla, who had strong statement swims (46.34 and 1:41.21) to announce his arrival.

The men’s 200 medley was won by the White team with Kosic anchoring, but the team’s 400 free placed second with Kosic leading off with a 44.92.

Kosic, who holds the school records in the 100 Free (43.23) and 100 Back (47.53), was the leading point-scorer for Georgia Tech at last season’s Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Championship, finishing sixth in the 50 free (19.74), fifth in the 100 free (43.46) and 13th in the 100 back (48.40).

Freshmen Performances

In addition to Harasz’s second place performances in the men’s 100- and 200-yard freestyle events, some other freshmen made notable swims according to the head coach.

“You never know what you’ll get from your freshmen,” said Hart in the press release, “but Noah Harasz, Kira De Bruyn, Morgan Lyons and Brian Woodbury stood out as some of our top freshmen performers.”

De Bruyn and Lyons, whose hometowns are both in Georgia, won individual events. De Bruyn in the women’s 200 IM (2:02.80), and Lyons in the 100-yard Fly (58.05).

On the men’s side, freshman Brian Woodbury, who is from University Place, WA, won the 100 back (50.21) in the 1996 Olympic venue by more than a second and placed second in the 200 IM (1:50.31), narrowly beating out another freshman, Alex Kimpel, who posted a 1:50.37.

Looking Ahead

This Friday (Oct.3) the Jackets are at Penn State to kick of their 2014-15 campaign. The next day they are in Annapolis to take on George Mason and Navy at a tri-meet.

“We are leaps and bounds ahead of where we were this time last year,” said Hart, who is starting her sixth season as Georgia Tech’s head coach. “That speaks to the hard work we’ve put in this summer and in the preseason.”

Last season the Jackets were represented at the 2014 NCAA National Championships by Kosic (15th in 50 Free and 27th in 100 Free) and Nico van Duijn (20th in 200 fly). The two teamed up with Taylor Wilson and Ricky Lehner in the 200 medley relay (29th), and then with Mats Westergren and Declan Poorman in the 800 free relay (23rd).

Full results for Georgia Tech’s White/Gold scrimmage can be found at: www.ramblinwreck.com/livestats/c-swim

Photo gallery of the meet here.

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