Nov. 19, 2008

2008 Gamecock Invitational

COLUMBIA – Swimming and diving squads from seven schools descend on the University of South Carolina campus this weekend for the Gamecock Invitational, which runs Thursday-Saturday at the Carolina Natatorium in the Sol Blatt Physical Education Complex.

Men’s and women’s squads from College of Charleston, Duke, East Carolina, North Carolina and Syracuse, along with the women’s squad from Lenoir-Rhyne College, will join up with the host Gamecocks for the three-day championships meet. Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. each day with finals to commence at 6 p.m. Diving preliminaries begin at noon Friday and Saturday with finals running concurrently with swimming in the evening.

Admission is free, and heat sheets for each session will be on sale at the Natatorium.

This marks the first prelims/finals event hosted by South Carolina since the 2004-05 season when it played host to the Carolina Classic. Formerly known as the Nike Cup, the event moved to Columbia this season after being hosted by the University of North Carolina for more than two decades.

North Carolina took the women’s title at last year’s Nike Cup Invitational while Virginia Tech captured the men’s championship.

Results will be posted after each session on the Gamecock Invitational page, which can be accessed at GamecocksOnline.com. In addition, a link to live results is available on that page. FloSwimming.com will also be on hand and will post video of each event on its web site.