Oct. 31, 2003
Columbia, S.C. – The University of South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were defeated on Friday afternoon by the University of Virginia. The men’s team was defeated by the Cavaliers 140.50-96.50 while the USC women’s squad was defeated 134-109.
Despite the loss, there were several bright spots for the Gamecocks. Ed Murphy won both the 50 and 100 yard freestyle with times of 21.30 (50) and 46.78 (100). Tamas Szucs also won the 200 yard freestyle with a time of 1:39.76, The 400 yard relay team came away with a win with a time of 3:05.06. The men’s divers had a respectable day with Andy Bradley winning the one meter dive with a score of 377.55 and fellow Gamecock Dean Emmerton finishing third with a score of 284.12. Emmerton also won the three meter dive with a score of 317.25.
On the women’s side, Jennifer Van Assen reached an NCAA B Standard with a time of 1:49.99 in the 200 yard freestyle. The Gamecocks also had the top three swimmers in the 50 yard freestyle with Heather Skaggs winning the event, finishing with a time of 23.57. The 400 yard freestyle relay team also pcked up a win with a time of 3:29.94. The women’s divers had a great day finishing in the top three in the three meter event. Allison Brennan led the way with a score of 315.45. Lindsay Havens won the one meter event with a score of 234.08.
“Virginia had an outstanding team,” said head coach Don Gibb. “They’re a perennial top ten team. I was encouraged by today’s meet. We have shown a lot of progress over the last few meets. We still need to work on some of our fundamentals though. We have some work to do to prepare for LSU next week.”
Head diving coach Todd Sherritt was impressed by the divers’ performance today. “The girls performed flawlessly. One, two, three against Virginia is very good. We slammed the door on them. The same goes for the men’s team. We were one place from being perfect (finishing 1st and 3rd). Our team is still gelling. I feel we need to make a lot of improvement, especially our conditioning.
South Carolina now prepares for the first SEC Match of the season, as the Gamecocks travel to Lousiana State on November 7th.
