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ATLANTA, GEORGIA - Yellow Jackets of all stripes headed out across the greater southeast and beyond for sports this mostly gloomy Atlanta weekend before sun gave way to a mixed bag of Sunday results on the Flats. This week’s title reference refers to the colloquial name for the 50 Freestyle, the shortest and quickest event in swimming.
No. 4 Men’s Golf
Like I promised, a brief note on the results from golf last week: Tech tied for first in Puerto Rico with the school out east. Andy Ogletree, Noah Norton, and Tyler Strafaci all finished in the top ten.
This week: Tech heads out to the desert for the Southern Highlands Collegiate.
Women’s Basketball
Thursday, February 21st: Georgia Tech (17 - 9) wins their fourth straight, over Clemson (17 - 10), 75-53.
Sunday, February 24th: Georgia Tech (17 - 10) falls to Virginia (11 - 16), 53-45.
Women’s basketball may not have won both games, but the win over Clemson was key in their hunt for a return to the Big Dance. The team played lockdown, lights out defense, forcing 31 turnovers in a 22 point rout of a team they had struggled with earlier in the season. Four scorers wound up in double figures in a productive night for the Jackets.
Later in the week, Tech ventured up to Charlottesville and promptly suffered a bad loss to a bad Virginia team. Despite holding them to the same number of points as a Clemson team, Kierra Fletcher fouled out and three Tech players finished with four fouls, and Lotta-Maj Lahtinen had three more, and Virginia, shooting mediocrely from the line, still wound up with more points from the charity stripe than Tech even attempted. Ultimately, foul trouble and abysmal shooting are what doomed the Jackets in a loss to a team they probably should have beaten.
This week: Tech gets in two games against the Florida schools to close out the regular season.
Women’s Tennis
Sweep or be swept! Tech fell to the top-ranked team in the sport, from the school out east, before coming home to demolish Pitt. The doubles point came down to a tiebreaker in Athens, but the singles weren’t as close. To open conference play, though, Tech looked much better in an uneventful home match.
This week: Tech gets Duke and Syracuse as ACC play begins in earnest.
Softball
Wednesday, February 20th: Georgia Tech vs. Jacksonville State was postponed.
Saturday, February 23rd: Georgia Tech (5 - 5) falls late to Mississippi State (8 - 3), 4-2.
Sunday, February 24th: Georgia Tech (6 - 5) defeats Alcorn State (2 - 4), 8-4.
Sunday, February 24th: Georgia Tech (6 - 6) is smacked Mississippi State (9 - 3), 9-0 (5).
Tech lost both of their games against Power Five teams this week. The first one, on Saturday, it was close, but Tech blew a lead late to their hosts in the bottom of the sixth inning, after allowing four unanswered runs to end the game. The Jackets faired better on day two, taking a whack at Alcorn State at least before falling to Mississippi State for a second time. Tech is slated to finish the tournament on Monday.
This week: Tech hosts some middle-of-the-road teams this weekend.
Women’s Swimming and Men’s and Women’s Diving
Tech finished the weekend ninth out of twelve with 360 points in the ACC Conference Championship in Greensboro. Camryn Hidalgo finished in the top 3 in the 1-meter diving, while Iris Wang and Emily Ilgenfritz notched NCAA B-cuts in the 100 and 200 Freestyle and 500 and 1650 Freestyle, respectively, while Allie Paschal earned a B-cut in the 200 Backstroke as well. It was a good week for those three, but the ninth place finish overall belies Tech’s lack of much depth outside of their three stars. We’ll see what the men do next weekend back in Greensboro.
This week: Men’s swimming heads to Greensboro for the ACC Championship, while the non-conference swimmers head to Athens for a last chance invite.
Track and Field
The Tech men’s team had an excellent weekend, finishing better than expected in eighth place, which was, as head coach Grover Hinsdale noted, ahead of four or five fully funded programs. Even in the post-meet interview, it is readily apparent to these teams that aren’t fully endowed just how much of a built-in gap there is between this program and ones with a complete set of funding. Anyways, the women came in thirteenth on their side, and, in terms of finishes, Bria Matthews won the triple jump, Ben Jean got third in the 400m, Avery Bartlett finished in second in the 800m, and Jeanine Williams again was a standout on the hurdles.
This week: Tech is at rest until the NCAA season starts up.
Men’s Tennis
Tech got throttled in Miami before coming home to face Tennessee. Miami wasn’t all bad news, though, as Tech avoided the sweep with another nice singles win from Andrew Li. Back in the friendly confines of the Ken Byers Tennis Complex, however, Tech was unable to pull out a gutty win after taking the doubles point to start the match. With four singles matches already decided - three wins for Tennessee more than offsetting the lone victory from Cole Gromley - and Tech’s Carlos Divar winning a marathon of a match in his own right, the match was decided after Li fell in three sets, after taking set one and losing set two in a tiebreaker. This, however, was much better than Tech had fared last year against the Volunteers on the hardcourt, so some positive direction is good for the program at least.
This week: Tech draws Florida State at home and Clemson on the road in this week’s conference matchups.
For Basketball Coverage:
Click here (Pitt > Miami)
For Baseball Coverage:
Click here (I linked to the fun one)
This Week on the Flats:
BOLD for home, REGULAR for away, ITALIC for time and location
Monday:
Softball vs. Southeastern Louisiana (Mississippi State Tournament)
11:00 AM, Starkville, MS
Softball vs. Mississippi State (Mississippi State Tournament)
4:00 PM, Starkville, MS
Tuesday:
Baseball vs. Georgia State
4:00 PM, Russ Chandler Stadium, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1
Wednesday:
Men’s Swimming at ACC Championships
All day, Greensboro, NC
Baseball at Georgia State
4:00 PM, Atlanta, GA, WREK 91.1
Softball vs. Kennesaw State
5:00 PM, Mewborn Field, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1
Men’s Basketball at Virginia
7:00 PM, Charlottesville, VA, ESPN2, and the Georgia Tech IMG Basketball Radio Network (WCNN 680 AM / 93.7 FM Atlanta)
Thursday:
Men’s Swimming at ACC Championships
All day, Greensboro, NC
Women’s Basketball at Miami
7:00 PM, Coral Gables, FL, RSNs and WREK 91.1
Friday:
Men’s Swimming at ACC Championships
All day, Greensboro, NC
Women’s Tennis at Duke
5:00 PM, Durham, NC
Men’s Tennis vs. Florida State
5:00 PM, Ken Byers Tennis Complex
Softball vs. Fordham (I-75 Challenge)
1:00 PM, Mewborn Field
Softball vs. Fordham (I-75 Challenge)
3:00 PM, Mewborn Field
Baseball vs. Northwestern
4:00 PM, Russ Chandler Stadium, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1
Saturday:
Men’s Swimming at ACC Championships
All day, Greensboro, NC
Swimming and Diving at Bulldog Last Chance Meet
All day, Athens, GA
Softball vs. Hofstra (I-75 Challenge)
1:00 PM, Mewborn Field
Baseball vs. Northwestern
2:00 PM, Russ Chandler Stadium, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1
Softball vs. Hofstra (I-75 Challenge)
3:00 PM, Mewborn Field
Sunday:
Men’s Golf at the Southern Highlands Collegiate
All day, Las Vegas, NV
Swimming and Diving at Bulldog Last Chance Meet
All day, Athens, GA
Women’s Tennis vs. Syracuse
12:00 PM, Ken Byers Tennis Complex
Men’s Tennis at Clemson
1:00 PM, Clemson, SC
Women’s Basketball vs. Florida State
1:00 PM, McCamish Pavilion, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1
Baseball vs. Northwestern
1:00 PM, Russ Chandler Stadium, ACC Network Extra and WREK 91.1
Softball vs. Western Carolina (I-75 Challenge)
1:00 PM, Mewborn Field
Men’s Basketball vs. Boston College
6:00 PM, McCamish Pavilion, ESPNU, and the Georgia Tech IMG Basketball Radio Network (WCNN 680 AM / 93.7 FM Atlanta)