Feb. 19, 2003
Auburn, Ala. – After the first day of competition at the SEC Championships, the South Carolina women’s swimming and diving team sits in first place with 92 points. The men’s team currently sits in sixth place with 68 points. Leading the way for USC in the first day was sophomore diver Tracey Richardson, who won the three-meter diving competition with a score of 523.55.
The Gamecock women’s team qualified three divers on Wednesday for the finals of the three-meter. Along with Richardson’s first place finish, sophomores Lauren King and Allison Brennan placed in the top eight. King finished sixth with a score of 489.65 and Brennan placed eighth with a score of 465.45. The women’s team also gained points with a tremendous fourth place finish in the 800 freestyle relay. The quartet of Bronwyn Dedekind, Jennifer VanAssen, Stephanie Margalis and Haley Skaggs finished with a time of 7:16.53, more than four second faster than the previous school record. The time is also an NCAA provisional time.
The South Carolina men’s team also found success in the first day of diving, with sophomore Andy Bradley placing fourth on the one-meter board with a score of 338.65. The men’s 800 freestyle team of Tamas Szucs, Tamas Bathazi, Ed Murphy and Chris McCrary placed seventh with a time of 6:41.63, a new season record time for the men. The men also set a new season high in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:31.52.
Head Coach Don Gibb said, “The diving is really important to us. We have great divers and they are they reason that we are in the position we are in right now. The thing is, though, that the women are generally better on the 1-meter, so I am sure we’ll get more out of them in the future. I can’t say enough about the women’s 800 free relay. They swam so hard tonight and they should be really pleased with their results. Coming into the pool tomorrow in first place should be a bog boost for the women. We hope that they can keep it up. Maintenance is the name of the game for now.”
Action continues on Thursday with the second of competition. Listed below is the event schedule.
10:30 a.m. Men’s 500 Freestyle Prelims (Event 7)
Women’s 500 Freestyle Prelims (Event 8)
Men’s 200 Individual Medley Prelims (Event 9)
Women’s 200 Individual Medley Prelims (Event 10)
Men’s 50 Freestyle Prelims (Event 11)
Women’s 50 Freestyle Prelims (Event 12)
1:30 p.m. Women’s 1-Meter Prelims (Event 13)
6:30 p.m. Men’s 500 Freestyle Finals (Event 7)
Women’s 500 Freestyle Finals (Event 8)
Men’s 200 Individual Medley Finals (Event 9)
Women’s 200 Individual Medley Finals (Event 10)
Men’s 50 Freestyle Finals (Event 11)
Women’s 50 Freestyle Finals (Event 12)
Women’s 1-Meter Diving Finals (Event 13)
Men’s 200 Freestyle Relay Finals (Event 14)
Women’s 200 Freestyle Relay Finals (Event 15)
