Nine Women and Seven Men to Compete in the SEC Finals Tonight

Feb. 18, 2006

Knoxville, Tenn. – The South Carolina swimming and diving teams open the last day of the SEC Championships with 9 women and 7 men going into the closing round of finals tonight. Christy Williams qualified highest during the preliminaries for the women’s team in the 200-butterfly placing seventh and Kyle Cormier for the men’s team in the 200-butterfly with 15th place.

The Gamecock women’s 200-bufferfly is sending all three swimmers to the finals. Leading the USC pack is Senior Christy Williams with a time of 2:00.56, about a second from her best time. Heather Roffey (14th) and Kendel (16th) also had solid qualifying performances.

Justin Kata was the only representative for the Gamecocks in the 200-breaststroke. He qualified for finals with a time of 2:04.64 to give him 18th place.

The 200-Butterfly was the best event for both the men and the women today. The men will be racing, Kyle Cromier and Tamas Bathazi in the finals tonight in the 200-fly. Kyle Cormier had a time of 1:50.30 and Tamas Bathazi placed 17th with a time of 1:51.13.

The 1650-freestyle will go straight into the finals today with the first two heats at 3:45. Heat 3 will open the evening session finals at 6 p.m. Stephanie Margalis, Mallory Deighan and Lauren Fayssoux will be swimming for the women in heat 1. For the men, Kevin Cargill and Mike Farrington will swim in heat 1 and Dan White and Tim Farrington will swim in heat 2. Mallory Deighan and Dan White have the fastest times coming into the 1650-freestyle Championships for the South Carolina teams.

Men’s Preliminaries

200-Backstroke

22. Kevin Cargill 1:51.78

22. Sean Murray 1:52.64

26. Christian Kata 1:55.87

100-Freestyle

19. Colby Mack 45.13

26. Christian Robledo 45.55

33. Reid Duff 46.17

39. Michael Duff 47.27

200-Breaststroke

18. Justin Kata 2:04.64