The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Duke Blue Devils split an ACC conference matchup dual meet Saturday. The Georgia Tech men toppled Duke to score a win on senior day while Duke won the women’s half of the meet.
Final Scores:
Men: Georgia Tech 200 – Duke 88
Women: Duke 196 – Georgia Tech 104
Full results are available here.
Women’s Meet:
Duke dominated the women’s meet, punctuating the victory, the Blue Devils’ eighth of the season, with sweeps of the 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly, and 400 IM. Freshman Leah Goldman led the way for Duke with three individual event wins.
In the 200 freestyle, the trio of Brittany Friese, Isa Paez, and Lisa Bragg took the top three spots in 1:52.40, 1:54.24, and 1:55.18, respectively. Friese swam to the win by getting out in front and staying there. Paez did the same for her second place finish. Erika Staskevicius nearly played the role of spoiler, taking fourth for Georgia Tech in 1:55.21. Staskevicius was in second through the 100, but faded over the second half of the race to be outtouched by Bragg.
Paez and Friese would trade places in the 500 freestyle, with Paez, in 5:03.61, taking the win this time. Friese finished in 5:04.65. Georgia Tech’s Sarah Williford took third in 5:06.42.
Later in the meet, Bragg would win the 200 backstroke in 2:04.07, a blowout victory. Bragg was third after the first 50, and second at the 100, but used a 31.08 over the third 50 to open up a lead on the rest of the field. Maddie Paschal took second for Georgia Tech and had the fastest final 50 with a 30.94, but could not run down Bragg. Paschal finished in 2:05.39 for Georgia Tech.
Leah Goldman, Maddie Rusch, and Linsay Cooper completed the sweep in the 100 fly. Rusch led Goldman at the 50 mark, 26.37 to 26.03, but Goldman closed in 29.16 to Rusch’s 29.64. Goldman touched in 55.53, while Rusch was 55.67. Cooper hit the wall in 57.17.
Rusch scored a win for Duke in the 50 in 23.45. She was the only swimmer in the field under 24 seconds.
Later, Goldman would double up with a victory in the 100 freestyle in 51.93, a margin of .7 tenths of a second over Morgan Lyons of Georgia Tech, who was second in 52.63.
Goldman would add a third victory in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:04.12. Her teammate Ashleigh Stanley took second in 1:04.79.
None of the 100 butterfly trio swam the 200 yard butterfly, however, Duke won thanks to Colleen Wixted’s 2:04.36 effort, almost 2.5 seconds faster than her Duke teammate Lizzie Devitt. Devitt finished in 2:07.71.
Duke took the top four spots in the 400 IM, the final individual event of the day. Devitt was the top finisher in 4:24.96, a runaway victory over teammate Kiera Molloy, who hit the wall in 4:29.74. Verity Abel took third in 4:30.60. Bragg was the fourth place finisher in 4:31.43.
The meet featured the 1650 freestyle, rather than the 1000. Abel won by over 25 seconds with a 17:13.45. Lindsay Schlichte, also of Duke, took second with a 17.38.60. Williford was third for Georgia Tech in 17:49.26.
Georgia Tech scored a win from Paschal in the 100 backstroke in 57.04 and Catherine Richards in the 200 breaststroke in 2:21.31. Shannon Lumbra topped the 1 meter diving with a 292.20, and 3 meter diving with a 306.98.
The Blue devils won the 400 medley relay in 3:49.19 from the team of Jessica Sutherland, Shanley, Paez, and Maddie Rusch. All four swimmers are underclassmen.
Goldman, Rusch, Cooper, and Kathryn Eckhart hit the wall in 3:30.68 in the 400 freestyle relay to end the day and complete the Duke victory.
Men’s Meet:
The men’s half of the meet was as lopsided as the women’s. The order was reversed, however, as the Georgia Tech men took down the Blue Devils.
The home team got rolling early winning the 400 medley relay in 3:18.74, including a 48.56 butterfly leg from Ben Southern.
Georgia Tech shined brightest in the 100 freestyle, posting the top five finishers. Youssef Hammoud led the way with a 45.86, and Andrew Chetcuti was second in 46.08. Noah Harasz finished in 46.55 for third. Dan Cohen Solal and Taylor Wilson, swimming exhibition, touched in 46.93 and 47.04, respectively.
The Yellow Jackets also posted the top four times in the 100 backstroke, with top three finishers all separated by just .2 tenths of a second. Woodbury won in 50.37, followed closely by Robert Borowicz in 50.47. Hammoud finished third in 50.57. Mark Keaveney took fourth in 50.99.
In the 1650, three swimmers finished under 16 minutes for the Yellow Jackets. Yuval Safra led the charge with a 15:39.51. Moises Loschi was second in 15:56.51, and Elliott Brockelbank rounded out the top three in 15:56.51.
The same trio would sweep the 500 in the same order. Safra won with a 4:31.92, Loschi finished in 4:34.98, and Brockelbank in 4:37.52.
Peter Kropp won the 100 breaststroke in 55.33, an NCAA B cut time, and the 200 breaststroke in 2:02.44. Duke would win just two other individual events. Bradley Cline won Duke the 200 backstroke in 1:50.61 Michael Miller won the 400 IM in 4:01.03, with Cline taking second in 4:05.62.
Andrew Kosic posted three wins for Georgia Tech. The first came in the 200 freestyle, where he touched in 1:39.36 to beat Cline’s 1:41.15. Next, Kosic won the 50 freestyle with an NCAA B cut time of 19.94, blowing out the rest of the field, none of whom finished under 20.50. His third individual event win of the day came in the 100 butterfly, where he touched at 47.70, another NCAA B cut time. Southern would take the 200 butterfly in 1:49.76.
The Yellow Jacket men finished the day with a 3:01.82 in the 400 freestyle relay for the win. Kosic posted the fastest split with a 44.37 from the leadoff leg to put an exclamation point on his senior day.
