Preview ECU vs Georgia Tech Women's swimming

The East Carolina University women’s swim and dive team will look to continue its winning streak as it faces off during the Georgia Tech Invitational today through Saturday.

The Pirates currently stand at 5-1 after making a statement win nearly three weeks ago against The University of North Carolina at Wilmington where they won 169-119.

ECU will rely heavily on seniors Vendela Norrman, Julie Lajoie and Alicia Roueche. Lajoie has dominated this season so far and has placed first multiple times in the freestyle and breaststroke in all six meets this season.

Against UNCW, Lajoie was a four-event winner, claiming individual wins in the women's 200-yard butterfly (2:02.14), 200-yard backstroke (2:02.82) and the 200-yard individual medley (2:05.75).

"Julie is incredibly versatile," head coach Matthew Jabs said. "She swims in many different events and succeeds in every single one of them. She is able to focus on everything she does and she does it really, really well which is very admirable."

Vendela Norrman has been a solid contributor for the majority of the season. She performed extremely well in the meet against UNCW, producing a NCAA B cut time by winning the 200-yard breaststroke. She was also part of a first-place 200-yard medley relay team along with Kyra Schermmel, Abby Hawkes, Hannah Albanses, Lucy Johnson, Julie Johnson and Yara Fakhry. She was also runner-up in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her time in the breaststroke event (2:15.85) is currently 26th in the NCAA and first in the American Athletic Conference. She produced a time of 1:04.68 in the 100-yard breaststroke, while the 200-medley relay squad posted an overall time of 1:46.02. Norrman was also named Swimmer-of-the-Week on Oct. 24.

Alicia Roueche posted an NCAA Zone qualifying score of 348.70 on the 3-meter springboard, setting a pool record. She also captured first-place on the 1-meter springboard. Roueche finished first in both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events in a dual meet against Old Dominion. She tallied a score of 290.05 in the 1-meter, a top-four finish in the conference. Roueche produced a score of 348.70 points, qualifying for NCAA Zone Regional. Roueche was also named diver-of-the-week.

The Yellow Jackets’ women’s team (3-2) have been led this season by junior Iris Wang in the pool and freshman Camryn Hidalgo on the boards. Wang ranks fifth in the ACC in the 200 free (1:47.85) and seventh in the league in the 100 free (49.76), while Hidalgo is first in the ACC in the 1-meter dive (331.35) and third overall in the 3-meter dive (353.63) in her first season.

Tech is coming off of dual meet losses to the nationally ranked Georgia Bulldogs back on Nov. 8, in which the Yellow Jackets recorded a total of nine individual wins and two relay victories, combined between the women’s and men’s squads.

ECU will need to take advantage of Tech’s recent loss in order to continue its five meet win streak, as it faces off today in Georgia to begin the three-day invitational.

ECU will travel to Georgia Tech Nov. 16-18 in hopes of keeping the win streak alive.