On Friday, Jan. 21, the Tech men’s and women’s swim and dive teams held an intrasquad meet in light of the previously scheduled meet against Queens University being canceled. The Jackets are now just three weeks away from the ACC championships which are being held in the McAuley Aquatic Center here at Tech. The team will have two more meets to prepare for the ACC championship in which they will be attempting to win their first ever conference title.
This weekend, the women’s team will have a dual meet with Tulane and Arkansas on Friday at Tech, and Gardner-Webb will come to town on Saturday for the Jackets final meet of the season which will be Senior Day. Following Senior Day, the Jackets’ last opportunity to improve before the ACC championships will be at the Yellow Jacket Invitational starting Feb. 11 before the ACC finals begin on the Feb. 15.
The women’s team is currently ranked ninth in the ACC, and the men’s team is ranked sixth along with being ranked number 21 in the country. The ACC championships will contain 11 top 25 teams between both men and women and will also include the current number one ranked women’s team in the country, Virginia.
Following the ACC championship the teams will then set their sights on the NCAA championships with the Last Chance meet to give the athletes who are close to the cutoffs a chance to improve their time or score and get an invite. In addition, Georgia Tech will be hosting a Zone Diving event that will serve as a qualifier for the NCAA championship. Many dive athletes have their sights set on competing in the event. The NCAA Championship will be hosted at Tech in the McAuley Aquatic Center as well for the third time, and the second time in five years.
Currently, the men’s team has one swimmer, Christian Ferraro, guaranteed to compete in the championship with an “A” cut time of 1:40.33 in the 200 Fly. There are also 25 other times on the men’s team and 12 times on the women’s team that are “B” cut times which entails the swimmers having a chance to get invited to the championship depending on how many athletes there will be in each event.
The NCAA championships will run March 16–26 where the Jackets will complete their season in their own pool.