Oct. 20, 2017
By Leigh Torbin
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The No. 17/25 Notre Dame men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams continue to improve their competitive standing within the potent Atlantic Coast Conference and some of that was on display on Friday afternoon at the Rolfs Aquatic Center as the Irish cruised to a pair of victories over Georgia Tech, with the men winning, 175-125, and the women downing the Yellow Jackets, 203-95.
With the wins, the Irish teams conclude their five-meet season-opening run at home with a 3-1 record, including a pair of head-to-head ACC victories, coming over No. 7/9 Louisville and Georgia Tech. The Irish will face a third ACC member, No. 20/223 Florida State, in a dual meet in January in Tallahassee prior to the league’s championship in February.
The Notre Dame’s female swimming contingent won each of its 14 races on Friday, getting double wins from Abbie Dolan, Sherri McIntee and Alice Treuth. Dolan also helped the Irish win a pair of relay events.
The Irish men’s meet was tightly-contested for a while. Notre Dame led just 66-65 when the meet took a 15-minute break at the midway point. However, after the pause, a focused Notre Dame outscored the Yellow Jackets, 109-60, en route to the victory. Along the way, Freshman Zach Yeadon continued his distance freestyle dominance, again winning both the 5000 and 1000 meters. Joe Coumos won both men’s diving events to become Notre Dame’s other double winner as an individual on Friday.
Coach Litzinger Said
“Georgia Tech came in here ready to swim. They have some fantastic athletes and they showed it today. Our guys got in a hole early in the meet but they responded and showed that they’re a great team. We swam as a team today. It was a team win. Going 1-2-3 in the distance events, having the opportunity to go 1-3 in diving and pulling off some great relay wins really made the difference for us.
“On the women’s side, Georgia Tech is a much-improved team but it was business as usual for us. They got up and did their thing. We had a great week of training. We’re working hard trying to get some people some different looks in different events. We just had a great time as a team today executing.”
Irish Event Winners
Women’s 400 medley relay (3:39.32) — Carly Quast, Meaghan O’Donnell, Erin Sheehan, Abbie Dolan
Men’s 400 medley relay (3:15.09) — Rob Whitacre, Garrett Clarke, Justin Plaschka, Tabahn Afrik
Women’s 1000 freestyle (10:10.48) — Ellie Berdusco
Men’s 1000 freestyle (9:29.80) — Zach Yeadon
Women’s 200 freestyle (1:48.29) — Lauren Heller
Women’s 100 backstroke (54.30) — Alice Treuth
Women’s 100 breaststroke (1:02.99) — Sherri McIntee
Women’s 200 butterfly (2:00.64) — Nikki Smith
Women’s 50 freestyle (22.96) — Abbie Dolan
Men’s 50 freestyle (20.33) — Justin Plaschka
Men’s 1-Meter Diving (333.90) – Joe Coumas
Women’s 100 freestyle (49.28) — Abbie Dolan
Men’s 100 freestyle (44.35) — Tabahn Afrik
Women’s 200 backstroke (1:56.50) — Alice Treuth
Men’s 200 backstroke (1:47.53) — Will Cumberland
Women’s 200 breaststroke (2:15.79) — Sherri McIntee
Women’s 500 freestyle (4:56.49) — Lindsay Stone
Men’s 500 freestyle (4:23.05) — Zach Yeadon
Women’s 100 butterfly (54.80) — Rachel Wittmer
Men’s 100 butterfly (48.24) — Matt Grauslys
Men’s 3-meter diving (357.75) — Joe Coumos
Women’s 200 IM (2:04.12) — Erin Sheehan
Women’s 400 freestyle relay (3:23.03) — Abbie Dolan, Rachel Wittmer, Lauren Heller, Sofia Revilak
Men’s 400 freestyle relay (2:58.25) — Tabahn Afrik, Justin Plaschka, Aaron Schultz, Rob Whitacre
Up Next
Notre Dame will swim away from home for the first time in 2017-18 as the Irish head to Purdue on Friday, Oct. 27. The meet will begin at 5 p.m.
–ND–
Leigh Torbin, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2013. A native of Framingham, Massachusetts, Torbin graduated from the University of Massachusetts in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in sports management. He has previously worked full-time on the athletic communications staffs at Vanderbilt, Florida, Connecticut and UCF.