Feb. 15, 2006
Columbia, SC – The University of South Carolina swimming and diving team will compete in the Southeastern Conference Championships this week in Knoxville, Tenn. Competition begins Wednesday, Feb. 15 at noon and concludes Saturday.
The competition will be tough as always in the SEC. The Georgia women have won five straight titles from 1997-2001, but Florida took top honors in 2002 and Auburn claimed the championships in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Those schools enter the 2006 SECs as the prohibitive favorites as Georgia is ranked No. 1 nationally, followed by No. 2 Auburn and No. 5 Florida.
The South Carolina teams looks to improve their women’s fifth-place finish and their men eighth place finished at last year’s SEC Championships. The team has been swimming strong this year and should perform well.
“The work has been done. This is the fun part,” said head coach Don Gibb. “We are just ready to get into the water. There will be a lot of opportunities before us and we just need to take advantage of that.”
Look for Lindsey Tiberio in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and Christy Williams in the 100 butterfly as they come into the championships with top 10 SEC times.
On the men’s side, all the relay teams have top 8 SEC times, which include the 200 Freestyle Relay, 400 Freestyle Relay, 800 Freestyle Relay, 200 Medley Relay and 400 Medley Relay. Dan White (200-freestyle) and Kyle Cromier (200-IM) also have top times in the SEC.
Two of South Carolina’s men have qualified for the NCAA Zones competition in March with David Ovelson the top scorer on the one-meter and Ian Balman the leader on the three-meter board. Ovelson competed strong at Kentucky winning the three-meter with 379.13 points and the one-meter with 335.70 points. His three-meter finish was a season best.
The Gamecock women look to be ready to compete at both the SEC and NCAA Championships. Senior diver Allison Brennan has proven to be one of the best in the nation with an undefeated record in the one meter. Brennan and Tracey Richardson have qualified for the NCAA Zones and figure to be among the contenders for SEC and NCAA titles. Brennan won the NCAA championship on the one-meter in 2004 and Richardson earned an SEC championship back in 2003 on the three-meter board.
“We have done a lot of conditioning for this meet,” said head diving coach Todd Sheritt. “Our goal is to get our three women in the Top 8 in both boards and to come away with a championship. One the men’s side, we want to get our two guys in the Top 8 too. I would really like to see David Ovelson in the Top 4 in both boards.”
There will be 18 individuals scoring per event. For swimming, the top 18 individuals from prelims will advance to the finals, and there will be three heats of six. Individuals in the championship final will finish in places 1-6, those in the consolation final will finish in places 7-12 (even if they have faster times than those in the championship final) and those in the “bonus final” will finish in places 13-18. For diving, the top eight will advance to finals and will score accordingly. Finishers 9-18 will come from the prelim scores.
The schedule of events and full results can be found at www.utsports.com.
