Feb. 6, 2007

Lexington, Ky. – The Gamecock swimming squads will begin the swimming portion of the SEC Swimming and Diving Championships Wednesday Feb. 7 at the University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center.

“Our biggest goal is for everyone to have their best personal performance ever. If we do that, then I think the results will take care of themselves,” Head Coach Don Gibb said. “We just want to get out of the gates well on the first day, and try to develop some momentum.”

On the men’s side, the Gamecocks are currently 4-5 for the season, and 1-4 in SEC competition. The men’s lone SEC victory came over meet host, the University of Kentucky. The women are 5-5 on the season entering the meet, and 2-4 in the SEC. The women’s SEC victories came against Arkansas and Alabama.

“I think that we are going to be pretty good in all of the events. We have a team that is spread out pretty well, and none of us have seen our best efforts yet this year,” coach Gibb said. “No one knows what the future holds, but I feel like we are in a pretty good position in all of the events.”

The Gamecocks currently have two swimmers qualified for the NCAA Championships in March, Senior Lindsey Tiberio and Junior Christy Williams, and they hope to qualify as many more as possible. This will be the first SEC Championship for a number of Gamecocks, including on the women’s side; sophomore sprinter Sharntelle McLean and freshmen Kelly Saurman and Kristina Delp. On the men’s side, this will be the first SEC trip for junior Leopoldo Andara and five freshmen: Andrew Atzhorn, Dominique Lendjel, Adam Middleton, Ciro Sauaia and Trey Tharpe.

Coming off the diving portion of the event South Carolina was in eighth place overall with 64 points. Swimming competition will begin at noon Wednesday with the preliminaries for the 200 and 800 medley relays. Competition will conclude Saturday evening.