Georgia Tech Pool Record Board Devastated By NCAAs

The Herbert McAuley Aquatic Center, originally the 1996 Olympic Pool, has seen a lot of history. Before these last two weekends, the pool had a record board with many names for the ages. Few of those historic names remain after two weeks of racing action. In fact, according to Georgia Tech swimming’s own official twitter, only two swims remain from before NCAAs.

First lets take a look at the board as it stood before all the action:

Now here is the record board after:

The only two swims to survive the past weekend came from Peter Vanderkaay and Sebastien Rouault. Both were men’s distance freestyle events, the 500 free and the 1650 from the 2006 NCAA Championship also hosted at Georgia Tech.

Swept from the board, among others, were names like Ryan Lochte (200/400 IM and 100/200 back) and Natalie Coughlin (50/100 free). Their replacements, Olivia Smoliga, Will Licon, Josh Prenot and Ryan Murphy, still have a lot to prove.

Many of these records look safe in the near future. With the ACC Championship becoming a near fixture in Greensboro, the pool will likely have to wait for another NCAA Championship for anyone to challenge the swims of these past two weekends. Still, after two decades the McAuley Aquatics center remains one of the fastest in American swimming.