Nov. 21, 2009
| Coach Moody |
COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina’s swimming and diving team finished the second annual Gamecock Invitational with a flourish as the women’s 400-yard freestyle relay team took first place and earned an NCAA provisional qualifying time in the last event of Saturday night’s finals. The Gamecock women took third place in the nine-team meet while the Carolina men finished second among the seven men’s teams.
The South Carolina team of Sharntelle McLean, Kristina Delp, Bridget Halligan and Claire Thompson stopped the clock at 3:24.59, just under the NCAA `B’ cut time of 3:24.67. They defeated North Carolina’s top relay team by more than a second to wrap up the three-day meet in style. The men’s relay team of Michael Flach, Armin Hornikel, Alex Fitton and David Livsey took second in their 400 FR with a 3:03.16.
It was McLean’s second win of the night after she equaled the meet record in claiming the 100 freestyle title in 50.35, a season-best. Halligan was ninth in 51.52, and Claire Thompson took 11th in 52.29. In the men’s 100, David Livsey claimed third place in 45.49, with Fitton (46.21), Rory Grigull (46.29), Andrew Seiler (46.56) and Ryan Langley (46.67) claiming the top four spots in the consolation final.
Hornikel earned big points for South Carolina as he took the title in the 200 breast with a time of 2:01.06, a season-best. Freshman Bobby Cave was fifth in 2:04.12, and Andy Atzhorn (2:05.79), Collin Kaden (2:09.72) and Ryan Connolly (2:09.76) took the top three spots in the consolation final.
Junior Claire Thompson picked up another top-five finish with a time of 16:48.38 in the 1650 freestyle. Her twin sister, Christine, was seventh in 17:08.15. Freshman Jordan Gibbs also earned points in the event with a 17:22.16. In the men’s mile, freshman Brooks Ross took fifth place in 15:39.68 with Dan Jackson grabbing 16th place in 16:09.48.
Megan Sparks and Haley Staubach finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 200 backstroke with Sparks clocking in at 2:02.22 and Staubach at 2:02.41. The men mirrored the women’s finished with Chris Kelly (1:50.08) third and Dominique Lendjel (1:50.09) fourth. The men also got points from Trey Tharpe (1:52.23) and James Crawford (1:56.90) in the consolation finals.
Carolina’s women also got a big boost from the 3-meter diving finals as juniors Allison Barr and Taryn Zack finished first and second, respectively, in the event. Barr scored a 321.30 to take the title with Zack just behind her teammate with a 313.70. On the men’s side, freshman Rylan Ridenour took second in the 1-meter finals with a 351.55; classmate Nikolas Sachs was fourth at 309.30.
In the 200 butterfly, Michael Flach put on a huge charge over the last 15 yards to earn a second-place tie with North Carolina’s Jason McLaughlin in 1:49.64, a scant one-hundredth of a second behind East Carolina’s Andrew Stoker. Isaac Badillo took ninth place with a 1:50.44 in the consolation final. For the women, it was freshman Meghan Brockington earning seventh place with a 2:05.82, while Whitney Avers (2:04.06), Laura Thomas (2:05.82) and Kerry Abel (2:08.08) all scored in the consolation final.
North Carolina took first place in both the men’s and women’s meets with South Carolina as the runner-up in the men’s competition and Duke taking second place in the women’s meet.
The Gamecock swimmers have concluded their fall season and will now turn their attention to winter training before their next dual meet on Jan. 9. The divers, however, have one more competition during the fall season as they travel to the Ohio State Invitational, which runs Dec. 3-5 in Columbus, Ohio.
MEN'S TEAM STANDINGS (unofficial)1. North Carolina - 1,2142. South Carolina - 8723. Duke - 4484. Florida - 3855. East Carolina - 3706. College of Charleston - 1617. Old Dominion - 115
WOMEN'S TEAM STANDINGS (unofficial)1. North Carolina - 1,1622. Duke - 7543. South Carolina - 530.54. East Carolina - 499.55. Florida - 2066. James Madison - 1947. Georgia Southern - 1168. Old Dominion - 999. College of Charleston - 4
*Results do not include diving scores
