On Oct. 23, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened play this season with a weekend meet with Florida Atlantic and Western Kentucky on Tech’s campus.
The men beat the Owls 195-97 and the women beat them 214-74, but WKU beat the men’s team 151-149 and the women’s team 152.5-147.5.
For the women, junior Sarah Broadley led the Jackets by coming in first place in the 100-free, 200-free, and she took part in the 200-free relay that won first place. Broadley managed to come in second in the 500-free, but teammate freshman Taylor Sostarecz won the event, earning points for the Jackets. Sostarecz also won the 1000-free.
“The coaches pulled me aside a couple of days ago and told me what I would be swimming in and to be ready for it. At that point, you can’t really argue. You just have to go out there and do what they tell you to do, and it turned out pretty good,” Broadley said.
For the men, the three top finishers in the 50-free were all Jackets, and junior Nigel Plummer won the event. Senior Garrett Robberson came in second in the 100-free. Junior Zach Tillman finished in second in the 500-free by one one-hundredths of a second. Tillman improved on his 500-free and showed his enduance by winning the longer 1000-free race.
“The most important part of those races is definitely the back half, and that’s when I took charge of both of the races and I came out on top,” said Tillman.
Freshman Anton Lagerqvist won the first match of his career in the 200-breast, and he finished second in the 200-breast.
The Tech divers hosted the match at Emory and freshman Ashley Hardy was the highlight of the match. Hardy won both the one and three meter dives in her first match of her career.
The teams next play on Nov. 5 against rivals Georgia and Emory.