This week, the Georgia Bulldogs are the only SEC swim team in action, hosting the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Athens, while ACC swimming action includes NC State and North Carolina hosting the powerhouse Texas Longhorns.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs are weaker than their usual high standard, with\u00a0Chase Kalisz\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Olivia Smoliga<\/strong> having finished their NCAA eligibility last year year, but Georgia will still be a challenge for the Yellow Jackets with seniors\u00a0Chelsea Britt<\/strong>,\u00a0Meaghan Raab<\/strong> and\u00a0Jay Litherland<\/strong> still in tow.<\/p>\n That said, Georgia Tech does have its strongest men’s team in several years, with freshmen\u00a0Caio Pumputis\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Albert Zhi<\/strong> joining returners\u00a0Moises Loschi<\/strong> and\u00a0Rodrigo Correia<\/strong>. Dual meets don’t always follow script, so there is some small potential for upset here.<\/p>\n As for the Texas meets in the Triangle area, both the Longhorn men and Wolfpack women will be looking to right the ship after losses last weekend: Texas’ men fell to Texas A&M for the first time in 55 years, while the NC State women were uncompetitive in dual meets at Stanford and then at Cal.<\/p>\n This year marks the third straight Texas and NC State have matched up, and while the Texas women should have no trouble getting a third straight win against NC State, the men’s meet should be compelling. Consider: Texas is licking its wounds from last weekend, while NC State did score a big upset win when the two teams faced off in Austin last year.<\/p>\n And even with\u00a0Jack Conger<\/strong>,\u00a0Will Licon<\/strong> and\u00a0Clark Smith<\/strong> graduated,\u00a0Joseph Schooling<\/strong>,\u00a0John Shebat\u00a0<\/strong>and co. will be a very tough matchup for\u00a0Ryan Held<\/strong>,\u00a0Justin Ress\u00a0<\/strong>and the Wolfpack.<\/p>\n Of course, whatever happens at Casey Natatorium Friday afternoon, the Texas men know dual meet wins only mean so much. Even after a loss to the Wolfpack last year, the Longhorns still won the NCAA title by almost 200 points come March.<\/p>\n North Carolina, meanwhile, hosts Texas a day later, one week after the Tar Heel freshman class and senior\u00a0Caroline Baldwin<\/strong> keyed a pair of upsets over Virginia Tech.<\/p>\n Elsewhere in the ACC, Louisville will be in Charlottesville for a two-day tri-meet against the Virginia Cavaliers and the Princeton Tigers, while Notre Dame, along with Cincinnati, visits in-state dynamo Indiana.<\/p>\n This week, the Georgia Bulldogs are the only SEC swim team in action, hosting the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Athens, while ACC swimming action includes NC State and North<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":228697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[65634,49364,46364],"class_list":["post-283441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-college","tag-acc-conference-coverage","tag-acc-swimming","tag-sec-swimming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nFull schedule:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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