Oct. 18, 2002
Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina man’s and women’s swimming and diving teams defeated the College of Charleston Friday evening in the Carolina Natatorium to open their 2002-03 season. The men’s team defeated the Cougars 143-125 and the Lady Gamecocks came away with a victory by the score of 153-127. Both teams are now 1-0 to start the year and will next travel to Virginia to take on top-ten ranked UVA.
The diving team made an impressive first showing of the year as all of the divers qualified for Zones. The team also set three new school records. Andy Bradley placed first on the three-meter and one-meter boards, setting a new school record for total score on six dives on the three-meter. Lauren King was the winner for both events for the women and also set new school records for total score on six dives on both the one- and three-meter boards. Diving coach Todd Sherritt said, “This was the best performance right out of the gate that I have seen in my time here at Carolina. This was fantastic for our divers to come out tonight and show like they did.”
Carolina won all of the first 17 swimming events before swimming exhibition the rest of the night. Winning individual heats for the men were: Tim Farrington (1000 free), Tamas Szucs (200 free), Lir Derieg (100 back, 200 butterfly), Justin Kata (100 breast) and Chris McCrary (50 free). Individual winners on the women’s side included Katie Bowden (1000 free), Stephanie Margalis (200 free), Heather Skaggs (100 back, 50 free), Samantha Lyon (100 breast), Bronwyn Dedekind (200 butterfly) and Jennifer VanAssen (100 free). Two members of the women’s team also made the NCAA Qualifying B-standard. Stephanie Margalis made it for the 200 free with a time of 1:50:32 and Heather Skaggs made it in the 100 backstroke with a time of 56:54.
“We had a very strong and encouraging showing by our freshmen tonight,” said head men’s and women’s coach Don Gibb. “I am also really pleased with our divers. They looked great and were really exciting to watch. Everybody on the team put forth a nice effort tonight.”
Looking forward to the Gamecocks’ next meet against Virginia in Charlottesville on Oct. 26, coach Gibb said, “We are going to have to work hard on our skills this week: our turns, our jumps, things like that. They are a top team and it’s going to be tough, but we’ll be ready for them when we get there.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams will return home after the Virginia trip to face Southeastern Conference rival Kentucky on Nov. 1.
