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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - It’s that time of year, friends. Time for us to share a little love for some unsung athletes that roam the halls of the Biotech Quad and sit at booths in the CULC just like regular people. Because they are regular people. Non-athletic regular people. NARPs. Like you and like me, for sure. But, oh yeah, the regular stuff happened, too.
As a reminder before we get into the details, the Mini 500, Freshman Cake Race, and Wreck Parade are this weekend as well. See “This Week on the Flats” for the schedule!
No. “We Know They Are Good” Women’s Tennis
Kenya Jones was the only Jacket to be in action this week in California. After demolishing the first set 6-1, she fell in three tough sets in the Round of Sixteen. She and the rest of the Jackets return to the courts when they host ITA Southeast at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex after homecoming.
This week: The Racket Jackets are off for the week.
No. 25/NR Swimming and Diving
1) The men are ranked.
2) The men beat no. 20 Florida State in Tallahassee this weekend.
Well...that’s nifty. Caio Pumpitis, who turned in a stellar year last year as a freshman, put the team on his back, taking home three of the Jackets’ thirteen wins in his individual events on the afternoon, winning the 100 and 200 breaststroke as well as the 200 IM. In his first collegiate meet, freshman Kyle Barone locked up a trip to the top of the podium himself in the 100 backstroke. Christian Ferraro notched Tech’s first NCAA cut of the year (more on those later) as well, on his was to a victory in the 200 butterfly. Leader Rodrigo Correia had a fine meet himself, taking home a victory in the 200 back, while the Tech men won two relays and diver Matt Casillas scored NCAA standard points from both the 1 meter and 3 meter boards.
Meanwhile, the women didn’t fair quite as well against Florida State, though Camryn Hidalgo matched Casillas on the boards in her first meet back from a freak injury at the end of the 2017-18 season. Iris Wang, ever reliable, contributed two blue ribbons two the cause in the 100 and 200 free, while Emily Ilgenfritz added two first place finishes of her own in the 500 and 1000 freestyle, a brutal double on any day, let alone one in a relatively quick triangle meet. Oh, yeah, Florida State, the host, may have been the big billing, but both teams easily handling the Pittsburgh Panthers, who were also down in Florida. All in all, a surprisingly solid performance by the Jackets in Tallahassee, who find themselves at 2-0 and 1-1 after just one day of the regular season.
This week: Tech is off until they host a quadrangle meet at the McAuley Aquatic Center the week after homecoming.
Softball
Played at Chattanooga this weekend, but the final wasn’t posted.
This week: They host Chipola Friday at 5:00pm at Mewborn Field.
Volleyball
Wednesday, October 3rd: Georgia Tech (12 - 6) holds off Clemson (9 - 9), 24-26, 28-26, 17-25, 25-12, 15-8 (3 - 2).
Friday, October 5th: VPISU (12 - 5) sweeps Georgia Tech (12 - 7), 25-23, 25-22, 25-15 (3 - 0).
Tech secured its first conference win of the season with a comeback win over Clemson earlier this week. They lost a heartbreaker in the first set, came storming back in the second to tie it up, and again fell behind in the third. On the back of a monster evening from Mariana Brambilla, however, Tech wrecked Clemson in back to back sets to pull out the win. It was a good one to get back on track.
Tech eliminated a six point deficit in the first set, but was unable to close it out, and the Hokies took the first set, which went down to the wire. The second set was largely a replay of the first and Tech fell by a couple. In the third, however, the Jackets were never really all that close, and fell by ten.
This week: The Jackets hit the road to face Wake Forest and Duke.
Men’s Tennis
Andrew Li had the best showing of the men’s team in Tulsa. After a four match sweep through the qualifying draw, he made the main bracket, only to be shown the door after a tough outing in the first round of the main bracket. The rest of the team did pretty well, with a couple more wins scattered throughout the qualifying brackets, but nothing too earth-shattering. Meanwhile, the Jackets will get back in action in Athens on the 17th.
This week: The Racket Jackets are off this week.
Club Sports
We start this trip around the scions of the Competitive Sports Office with a look at Georgia Tech Hockey, who find themselves sitting at 3-2 after five games of play so far this year. We begin there because, without them, this little endeavor wouldn’t be happening, as I was reminded last week that I hadn’t checked in on hockey, lacrosse, rowing, swimming, and the rest of the club sports family. Anyways, Tech hockey opened up their season with a pair of solid wins against UAB and Lynn, respectively. The Jackets actually dressed more men than they usually are allowed to, which caused some interesting hiccups, but the Jackets were still able to take a 3-0 first period lead and never look back. The second game was never in doubt, with Tech taking a while to get on the board, but ultimately finishing with 11 goals. Tech then hosted the school out East in a tough, closely-played game, but ultimately fell 6-4. They responded by beating up on another rival, the Clemson Tigers, winning 7-2 in a tough road game, before succumbing to Kennesaw State by one in the latest contest. Through the early part of the season, the total stats aren’t published, but the Jackets knack of blowing the other teams out in their wins yet losing narrow games means that the goal differential is very much on their side and it looks to be another exciting season for a team that made a very deep run in the playoffs last spring.
In other club sport news, Tech’s reigning national champions, the swim club, headed up to Clemson for the weekend to take on the formidable Tigers of both Clemson and Auburn, as well as smaller teams like Alabama, Appalachian State, and Mercer. All in all, the Jackets coasted to a victory in their first invitational of the season thanks to 27 first place finishes, including 7 of 8 relays. Tech swept the women’s 100 and 200 backstroke, as well as the 200 and 500 freestyle, and came within inches of it several more times, off of great swims from the likes of defending title holders Lindsay Knapp, Rebecca Durham, Ellie Ridgeway, Ally Nastasi, and Makenna Laffey on the women’s side, and Michael Quillen, Derek Wu, John Pressly, Eddie Cochell, and Dan Zhang for the men. Two veterans who had great fall breakouts were Maddie Sibilia and Blake Bunnell, who each placed in several events, including bringing home the winning leg of a one-two finish in the 200 backstroke for the latter. However, the weekend’s standout performance goes to freshman Andrew Rohweder, who took home four first place finishes and one second place finish as part of Tech’s convincing opening weekend win.
As far as upcoming events go, men’s soccer plays the school from Athens at the Roe Stamps Fields next to the Campus Recreation Center this Friday night after the Mini 500 ends, and those games are always a nice bit of fun. In this case, without volleyball this weekend, the opportunity to fill the cravings for sports between watching a tricycle race and watching Tech play Duke the next afternoon can be alleviated with a sport there is no opportunity to see a varsity vintage of on the Flats.
Meanwhile, contacts with rowing, tennis, and a couple others did not get back to me before Yellow Jacket Roundup was published, so we will catch up with them some other time.
Baseball
For this week’s baseball coverage, click here.
Football
For this week’s football coverage, click here.
This Week on the Flats:
BOLD for home, REGULAR for away, ITALIC for time and location
Monday:
Men’s Golf @ Jack Nicklaus Invitational - Round One, Kent State
8:30 AM, Dublin, OH
Men’s Golf @ Jack Nicklaus Invitational - Round Two, TBD
1:30 PM, Dublin, OH
(The Jack Nicklaus Invitational continues based on the results of the first round of play)
Tuesday: OFF
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: OFF
Friday:
Women’s Cross Country @ Penn State National Open
10:30 AM, University Park, PA
Men’s Cross Country @ Penn State National Open
11:15 AM, University Park, PA
Mini 500
5:00 PM, Peters Parking Deck
Softball vs. Chipola
5:00 PM, Mewborn Field
Volleyball @ Wake Forest
7:00 PM, Winston-Salem, NC, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1
Saturday:
Freshman Cake Race
EARLY EARLY EARLY, East Campus
Wreck Parade
8:00 AM, Fowler Street between Eighth and Ferst
Football vs. Duke
12:20 PM, Bobby Dodd Stadium, ESPN and Georgia Tech Football Radio Network
Sunday:
Volleyball @ Duke
1:00 PM, Durham, NC, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1