Dec. 4, 2003

Auburn, Ala. – South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving began competition at the Auburn Invitational on Thursday morning in the preliminaries. Swimming long course (meters), the Gamecocks came away with two first place finishes as Istvan Bathazi won the 200 IM and Jennifer VanAssen was victorious in the 50 freestyle. South Carolina will have 14 swimmers competing in the “A” final tonight following the preliminary competition. All swimmers this evening will compete in short course (yards).

Istvan Bathazi, who has already reached the “B” standard in the 400 individual medley, finished the 200 meter IM with a time of 2:03.53 and was just 0.18 seconds shy of the NCAA automatic qualifying standard. Sophomore Justin Kata finished sixth (2:13.24) and sophomore Michael Farrington placed eighth (2:13.47) to put three Gamecocks in the finals tonight.

The men also placed three swimmers in the “A” final in both the 400 meter freestyle and 50 meter freestyle. Senior Tamas Szucs placed second (4:03.20), freshman Colby Mack was third (4:03.64) and sophomore Tamas Bathazi finished sixth (4:05.03) to lead the Gamecocks in the 400. In the 50 meter, Ed Murphy was second with a time of 23.63, Reid Duff was seventh at 24.12 and Josh Parkin placed eighth with a time of 24.42.

For the women’s squad, senior Jennifer VanAssen led the way with a time of 26.36 to win the 50 meter freestyle, a NCAA “B” standard. Also reaching the NCAA “B” standard for Carolina was Carolynn McHugh, who finished fourth with a time of 26.72. Heather Skaggs finished fifth (26.80) and Ashleigh Bastak was seventh (27.21) as the Gamecocks put four swimmers in the 50 freestyle final.

Kendel Fiorentino also advanced to the “A” final with a sixth place finish in the 200 meter IM with a time of 2:27.18.

The finals will start tonight at 7 p.m. ET.