ECU Wraps Up Fall At Georgia Tech Invitational

GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Nearly a month removed from its last competition, the East Carolina swimming and diving teams return to action this week at the Georgia Tech Invitational, which runs Friday – Sunday, Nov. 22-24, at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta.

The three-day meet will follow a traditional NCAA Championship meet format with the preliminaries held in the morning and the finals during the evening. The finals are scheduled to begin each day at 5:30 p.m.

Competing alongside the Pirates and host Yellow Jackets will be Alabama, Florida State, North Carolina, South Carolina and Utah. The sixth-ranked Florida Gators will also be competing on the men's side, while Georgia Southern will participate in the women's events.

"I expect to see us compete against some of the best in the country, with the same energy and confidence we have carried throughout the first semester," ECU Head Coach Matthew Jabs said. "Our goals for this meet are pretty simple; we want to be better than we've been all season in our individual performances. I want to have a lot of swimmers and divers competing at night in finals. We are not focused on team points or place. We are looking at swimming and diving at our best to put us in a great position to be seeded high at The American championship meet in February."

ECU will send some of the conference's and the nation's fastest swimmers into competition. The Pirates currently occupy 22 top-three positions in the conference's event rankings and have 17 NCAA Division I Top-50 times.

"There is no secret formula, our student-athletes this year have been working really hard as a group and it's been showing in the results," Jabs explained. "The team environment has been the best I've seen it in a while; the attitude and energy has been great, and they aren't afraid to push each other."

Each of the four men's relay teams rank among the top 31 with the 400-medley relay team of Marek Osina, Lyubomir Epitropov, Gustavo Santos and James Ward occupying the No. 23 spot. Santos and Ward also help comprise the 25^th-ranked 200-freestyle relay team along with Eric Hunderup and Pedro Guieros.

Epitropov has the top ranked time of any ECU swimmer in any event with the 12^th fastest mark in the 200-yard breaststroke. He also owns the 34^th-fastest time in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Osina and Magnus Andersen are also ranked in multiple events.

Osina is ranked among the top 40 in three events: 400-yard IM (24), 200-yard IM (32) and 200-yard breaststroke (38) and Andersen holds top-50 times in the 200-yard backstroke (36) and 200-yard IM (49).

Santos, who is part of the each of the four relay squads, also has a top-50 individual time in the 100-yard butterfly (48).

Jacke Arentewicz and Ben Gingher rank 43^rd and 44^th in the 200-yard breaststroke, respectively.

The ladies have two top-50 relay times with the foursome of Catherine Johnson, Keyla Brown, Adela Vavrinova and Laura Benkova posting the 38^th-fastest 200-freestyle relay mark.

Johnson, Jodi Ogle, Lily West and Shannon Stott rank 41^st in the 400-medley relay.

The lone individual top-50 time for the ECU women belongs to Vavrinova, who ranks 48^th in the 400-yard IM.

"The combination of quality training and team environment has allowed us to progress our training a little faster than previous seasons," Jabs said. "Our top kids have been a great example for the rest of team, They understand there is no off-season."

ECU finished up the fall portion of the dual meet season with a record of 6-1 on the women's side and 5-1 on the men's.

Live results will be available for each session on ramblinwreck.com and the entirety of the event will be streamed on ACC Network Extra.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Magnus Andersen

Laura Benkova

Keyla Brown

Lyubomir Epitropov

Ben Gingher

Catherine Johnson

Jodi Ogle

Marek Osina

Gustavo Santos

Shannon Stott

Adela Vavrinova

James Ward

Lily West

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