Gamecocks Post Five Career-Best Times at UNC
Two men and two women turned in career-best times Friday night in Chapel Hill.
COLUMBIA, S.C.- South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams posted five personal-best marks and six other season-best times at North Carolina Friday afternoon. With the Tar Heels taking both victories, 159.50-140.50 on the men’s side and 157-143 on the women’s side, the Gamecocks still showed good improvement early in the season.
Seniors Fynn Minuth and Emma Barksdale each won three events. Minuth swam season-best times in the 200 free (1:38.80) and 500 free (4:28.45) while also touching first in the 200 butterfly in 1:49.81.
Barksdale swept the breaststroke events for the second time in as many meets, touching in a personal-best 1:01.57 in the 100 breast and in 2:14.78 in the 200. She went on to swim a season-best time of 1:58.75 in the 200 IM to claim first in that race as well.
The Gamecock women touched first and second in the 200 IM as freshman Hallie Kinsey swam a 2:03.56 in the event. Kinsey was also second in the Gamecocks’ 1-2 finish in the 200 butterfly. Freshman Melinda Novoszath touched first in a personal-best 1:58.46 with Kinsey turning in a time of 1:59.49.
Freshman Katie Sanderson picked up her second win in the 1000 freestyle in as many meets, swimming a 9:55.03 against North Carolina. Karlee Price claimed the one-meter diving title with a score of 280.88. The Gamecocks closed the meet with a win in the 400 free relay as Novoszath, Christina Lappin, Emily Cornell and Barksdale posted a season-best time of 3:21.14.
On the men’s side, sophomore Lionel Khoo swam a season-best time of 53.84 to win the 100 breaststroke and touched first in the 200 IM with a personal-best time of 1:50.80.
Freshman Anton Down-Jenkins swept the diving events with personal-best scores of 358.79 on the one-meter board and 411.98 in the three-meter competition.
Junior Kevin Liu added another season-best time to the Gamecocks’ haul, touching in 1:47.08 in the 200 backstroke.
Cody Bekemyer made it a 1-2 finish for the Gamecocks in the 200 IM, edging out North Carolina’s top finisher with a time of 1:51.21. Williams Riggs gave South Carolina the two top spots in the 200 butterfly (1:51.28), and Grant Summers added a second-place finish on the three-meter board to Down-Jenkins’ win in the event.
Up Next for the Gamecocks:
South Carolina is back in action next week, traveling to SEC rival Georgia for a noon start on Sat., Nov. 3.
For more swimming updates, follow South Carolina Swimming and Diving on Twitter at @GamecockSwim.
