Nov. 18, 2009

2009 Gamecock Invitational | Meet Notes | Live Results

COLUMBIA – More than 400 athletes from some of the top swimming & diving programs in the country will descend on the University of South Carolina’s Sol Blatt P.E. Center and the Carolina Natatorium this weekend for the second annual Gamecock Invitational, which runs Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 19-21.

Teams participating in men’s and women’s competition will be College of Charleston, Duke, East Carolina, Florida, North Carolina, Old Dominion and the host Gamecocks. Women’s teams from Georgia Southern and James Madison will also compete at the event.

In last season’s Gamecock Invitational, South Carolina finished second in both men’s and women’s competition. The women scored 801 points to finish second to North Carolina’s 1,360, while the Gamecock men had 842.5 to finish as runner-up to UNC’s 1,337.5. Duke, East Carolina, Syracuse and Charleston rounded out the top six in both meets, while Lenoir-Rhyne’s women finished seventh in the women’s competition.

South Carolina’s Sharntelle McLean set the school record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.65, and three pool records fell at the hands of North Carolina swimmers. The Tar Heels’ Chip Peterson set the natatorium standard in the 1650 free with a time of 14:48.86, more than 20 seconds faster than the existing record. UNC’s Tyler Harris broke the pool records in both the 200 IM (1:46.53) and 400 IM (3:44.00). All three record-setters will be in competition this weekend.

Preliminaries each day get underway at 10 a.m. with finals set for 6 p.m. Diving preliminaries will take place on Friday and Saturday afternoons with the finals running concurrent with swimming at night. Admission to all sessions of the meet is free, and heat sheets will be for sale at each session.

Full results from each session will be posted on the Gamecock Invitational page, which can be accessed through the link at the top of the page or from the main swimming and diving page at GamecocksOnline.com. In addition, live results are available through SportsTiming.com; a link can be found on the event page as well.