Hokies open 2018-19, hosting DukeHokies open 2018-19, hosting Duke
Swimming & Diving

Hokies open 2018-19, hosting Duke

BLACKSBURG - The Virginia Tech swimming and diving team will open the 2018-19 season under the direction of new head coach Sergio Lopez Miro this weekend as the Hokies are set to host Duke. It also marks the teams' Mary Soulen Gilbert Memorial Breast Cancer Awareness Meet. Fans in attendance will receive a breast cancer awareness t-shirt.

MEET INFORMATION
vs. Duke
Christiansburg Aquatic Center - Christiansburg, VA.
Saturday, Oct. 13 | 11 a.m.
Live Scoring - Link

THE HOKIES
Virginia Tech enters the season receiving votes on both the men's and women's side in the preseason TYR CSCAA Top-25 poll. During the off-season, the Hokies welcomed a new head coach, Sergio Miro-Lopez as well as assistant coaches Jacy Dyer, Steven Steketee and Albert Subirats. In addition, the team welcomes 22 new additions with a wide variety of accomplishments from national team members to Olympic qualifiers from both the fall and spring signing class. This meet will be the first of the Hokies four home meets this season.

Returning for the Hokies are three NCAA qualifiers on the women's side, including All-Americans Reka Gyorgy, Ashlynn Peters and Joelle Vereb. Gyorgy is the two-time defending ACC 400 IM champion and Peters earned ACC Diver of the Meet honors last season. Vereb was a member of three school record setting relay teams last season, including a 200 medley relay team that grabbed silver at last year's ACC Championships. 

On the men's side, the Hokies return four NCAA qualifiers, including Ian Ho, Lane Stone, Norbert Szabo and Ben Schiesl. Ho continued to improve, breaking his own Tech record in the 50 free. Stone had a great freshman season, setting records in the 500, 1000 and 1650 free while Szabo nabbed silver at ACCs in the 200 IM, dropping his time by four seconds. Schiesl earned his first All-American honors last season, placing ninth in the 1-meter at NCAAs. 

THE BLUE DEVILS
At the conclusion of last season, the Blue Devils ended the Men's Swimming and Diving season unranked while the women were tied for 25 in NCAA rankings; this season they enter ranked 22nd in the CSCAA preseason poll. This weekend, Duke will kick off their 2018-2019 season against the Hokies for the second consecutive year. The Blue Devils return six NCAA qualifiers on the women's side for the 2018-19 campaign. 

ORDER OF EVENTS
Each event will begin with the women's heat, followed by the men in the listed order:
200 Medley Relay
1000 Free
200 Free
100 Back
100 Breast
200 Fly
50 Free
Women's 3M
Men's 1M
100 Free
200 Back
200 Breast
500 Free
100 Fly
Women's 1M
Men's 3M
200 IM
400 Free Relay