Dec. 3, 2004

Auburn, Ala. – The South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming teams competed in the first day of the Auburn Invitational on Thursday with several men’s and women’s swimmers coming away with season best times. The highlight of the evening was freshman Dan White’s second place performance in the 500 freestyle with a NCAA “B” standard time of 4:27.20.

South Carolina continued its success the freestyle events as the 200 freestyle relay team of Haley Skaggs, Carolynn McHugh, Christy Williams and Alyssa Cady placed second behind Auburn with a time of 1:34.67.

USC was very successful in the men’s 500 freestyle with junior Tamas Bathazi and sophomore Colby Mack also competing in the championship final. Bathazi took fourth place with a time of 4:30.27 and Mack was eighth at 4:44.41. In addition, the “B” final saw junior Tim Farrington place 11th (4:36.85), freshman Kevin Cargill finish 12th (4:37.90), freshman Kyle Cormier 13th (4:37.91) and freshman Evan Duffin-Barnes 16th. Also competing in the championship finals on the first day for Carolina was junior Reid Duff (fifth/21.15).

On the women’s side, competing in the championship final of the 200 individual medley was freshman Christy Williams, who placed fifth with a time of 2:05.60. Senior Carolynn McHugh was a finalist in the 50 freestyle and placed seventh at 23.93.

Thursday night’s competition was the first of three days of swimming at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center. There is no team scoring for this weekend’s event. USC is also competing against Penn State, Indian River Community College (Fla.) and several unattached swimmers.