Nov. 20, 2005
The South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams continued their success on day two of the Texas A&M Invitational. Among the highlights for Carolina was the men’s 800 freestyle relay team of Colby Mack, Reid Duff, Christian Robledo and Dan White finishing in first place, senior women’s diver Allison Brennan capturing the top place on the three-meter board ,freshman men’s diver David Ovelson winning the one-meter board and junior Lindsey Tiberio reaching a Senior Nationals cut in the 100 breaststroke. USC continues to sit in fourth place on the both the men’s and women’s side going into the final day of competition on Sunday.
“I thought we were a little sluggish this morning but I thought the team came back in the evening and did very well,” said USC assistant coach Phil Kraus. “It was probably one of the most complete performances as a team that we have had. Most of the swimmers were able to improve their times.”
After winning the one-meter board on Friday night, Brennan continued her dominance among the diving ranks as she scored 352.80 to win the three-meter competition. Brennan is still undefeated on the year and has not finished lower than first place in any meet she has competed and been involved with. Ovelson scored 344.85 on the one-meter board then to take first place for the second straight day as well.
“Tonight was awesome for the entire team,” said USC diving coach Todd Sherritt. “To sweep all the events on both diving boards was great and it was just an exciting contest. Allison was neck and neck with some of the others and ended up winning and beating a girl who won the bronze medal at this year’s World Championships. I think that this was a big confidence booster for Allison, to win down in Texas against three real good divers, who just came off of World Championships and their National circuit. For David, it was probably a bigger victory for him today after doing a great job on the low board. The whole field was good. This was the first big test for our divers and they competed very well.”
Mack, Duff, Robledo and White capped off an exciting swimming night with their first place finish in the 800 freestyle relay. Carolina came away with a time of 6:44.95 to finish one second ahead of Texas A&M.
“It showed some guts and a lot of heart from those swimmers to come back and win that event at the end of the night,” said Kraus. “It was good for the team to see them finish it out and go for it like they did, after a few of them did not do as well as they would have liked in some events earlier in the evening.”
Christy Williams had one of her best individual performances of the meet with a second place finish in the 100 butterfly. Williams was 54.74 for an NCAA “B” qualifying time. She also reached the “A” finals of the 100 backstroke and had a time of 56.67 for sixth place. Junior swimmer Lindsey Tiberio hit a Senior Nationals cut in the 100 breaststroke at 1:03.05, also taking second place in the event.
Carolina also had two swimmers on the women’s side competing in the “A” final of the 400 IM, with Amanda Dunnigan taking fifth place with a time of 4:24.08 and Carly Hensel finishing eighth at 4:30.91. USC men’s swimmer Kyle Cormier turned in the men’s top performance of the season in the 400 IM with a second place finish of 3:59.17, the fastest on the year in that event. Sophomore swimmer Dan White also competed in the “A” final and was fifth at a time of 4:02.73. Tim Farrington and Kevin Cargill also finished in ninth place and 10th place overall as they competed in the “B” final.
Men – Team Rankings – Through Event 28
1. Texas A&M University 797 2. Southern Methodist University 723.5 3. Louisiana State University 516 4. University of South Carolina 485.5
Women – Team Rankings – Through Event 27
1. Texas A&M University 808 2. Southern Methodist University 600.5 3. University of Michigan 586 4. University of South Carolina 327 5. Louisiana State University 273.5 6. Tulane University 100 7. University of Houston 92
