The Irish head to Atlanta for a two-day ACC meet against Georgia Tech on Oct. 21 and 22.
Emory was also supposed to compete in the meet, but dropped out recently, so now Georgia Tech and Notre Dame will be the only two teams attending.
The teams will be facing each other in the pool where the 2017 ACC championships will be held in February. Notre Dame is coming off a clean sweep last weekend with the men’s and women’s teams winning all 22 events in the first day of the Dennis Stark Relays, besting both Oakland and Indiana State.
Georgia Tech has had a strong opening to its season with the men sweeping both Pittsburgh and Boston College last week.
Irish head coach Mike Litzinger expects the men’s team will need work hard to rise above the talent of Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets women also beat Georgia Southern at the end of September.
“[The meet against Georgia Tech] will be a pretty competitive meet for our guys,” Litzinger said. “This string of three weeks for our men is going to be crucial and it is going to be the highest level of competition that we’ve seen so far this fall.”
The Georgia Tech women’s team split a double-dual in its first ACC matchup, topping Boston College and losing to Pittsburgh.
Litzinger emphasized the importance of the team, rather than the individual, for the women to surpass the Georgia Tech squad.
“Our women are going to have to perform really well as a group,” Litzinger said. “It is not going to be dominated by one individual — I think the win will come from everyone doing their part in their event.”
Litzinger reiterated that Georgia Tech is the best squad the team has come up against so far this season.
“It will certainly be the best competition we have faced since the year began,” Litzinger said.
The meet takes place in McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta on Oct. 21 at 4 p.m. and resumes Oct. 22 at 11 a.m. Following this meet, the Irish will compete in ACC competition again in November against Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech.
