Melbourne, Fla. – The Florida Tech men's swimming program opened the 2023-24 season Saturday afternoon with a Sunshine State Conference meet against Rollins at the Panther Aquatic Center.

Thanks to strong performances across the board, the Panthers started the campaign with a 86-64 victory with the meet being shortened after 17 events due to weather.

In his first event with the Crimson and Gray, freshman Zach Reese won the 100 Back with a time of 52.44

Not to be outdone, freshman Akos Hajagos also started his career on top with his time of 1:49.12 earning him the victory in the 200 Fly.

Senior transfer Luke Altmann also introduced himself to the Panther faithful with a victory by taking the 50 Free (21.04) and 100 Free (45.30). His time in the 100 free was two and a half seconds ahead of the closest competition.

Brayden Hohman (10:10.34) earned third place in the 1000 Free, while Josh McLean took third in the 200 Free with a 1:45.98 time. Connor Orth took second in the 100 Breast thanks to a finish of 56.98. Jay Jay Fonnotto grabbed third in the 200 Fly with a time of 1:52.35. Max Martino (21.43) and Matteo Caruso (21.60) made it a clean sweep for Tech in the 50 Free. Jacob Sykora earned third in the 100 Free with his 48.45 finish.

In relay action, the group of Daniel Aizenberg, Connor Orth, Caruso and Altmann were victorious in the 200 Medley with a time of 1:31.90. The team of Fonnotto, Matthew Heaphy, Hajagos and Martino took second thanks to a 1:32.77 finish.

Coach's Corner:
"We knew on paper that we had a good team coming into this year, we knew we had a really strong incoming class of freshmen and transfers, but the team saw today what we're fully capable of and I think they're going to buy in in a little bit more and we're just going to keep having fun."

"The one big push we made was just trying to grow our depth and continue to make sure that we're competing at a high level from our top swimmers all the way down, we want to be competing at a high level with everybody."

"We know September 30 is not our end goal, so we're continuing to make progress and work towards our end goal of moving up the rankings in the Sunshine State Conference and sending as many athletes as

we can to NCAA (Championships), but we've got a lot of meets coming up these next few weekends that we're putting our focus on. Just have as much fun and continue to win as many races as we can."


Up Next:

The Panthers will return to the pool next Saturday, October 7th at 12 P.M. at the Nina B. Hollis Wellness Center Pool in Lakeland for a Sunshine State Conference meet against Florida Southern.

For the latest news, updates, and information on the Florida Tech men's swimming team, visit FloridaTechSports.com. Fans can also stay up to date on the latest Panthers news by following Florida Tech Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.