Feb. 18, 2010
| Coach Moody |
| Michael Flach |
ATHENS, Ga. – Freshman jitters? Not a problem.
South Carolina freshman Michael Flach put together an incredible race in the 500 freestyle to win the bronze medal on Thursday night at the SEC Swimming & Diving Championships.
Flach swam the best race of his young career, clocking in with a time of 4:19.37 to earn a spot on the medal stand in his first championship race as a collegian. Sitting in fifth place with 150 yards to go, Flach ran down Florida’s Balazs Gercsak and Kentucky’s Tyler Reed and charged down the home stretch to claim the bronze. He improved his NCAA `B’ cut time and also lowered his own mark as the second-fastest time in school history.
In the diving well, junior Taryn Zack fell just short of the medal stand for the second straight night as she turned in a fourth-place finish on the 3-meter board with a score of 352.85. In prime position after four rounds, she missed on her fifth dive – a reverse 2.5 somersault – and dropped to the bottom of the leaderboard. However, she recovered with a strong dive in the final round to salvage a fourth-place showing and 15 points for the Gamecock team effort.
Junior Bridget Halligan, in the Gamecocks’ other individual final of the evening, finished third in the consolation final of the 50 freestyle to take 11th place overall and earn six points for South Carolina. Halligan touched in 22.88, lowering her own personal record from the 22.93 she swam this morning and earning a better NCAA provisional qualifying time.
The evening wrapped up with the 200 freestyle relay. The men’s team of Dominique Lendjel, Andrew Seiler, Alex Fitton and David Livsey took seventh place with a 1:21.66, an improvement of 2.5 seconds over their previous best this season and coming up just .09 seconds short of an NCAA provisional qualifying time. It was also the 10th-fastest time in school history. On the women’s side, the team of Sharntelle McLean, Megan Sparks, Halligan and Kristina Delp took eighth place in 1:32.87, a season-best by two seconds and the seventh-best mark in Carolina history.
Through two days, the South Carolina men sit in eighth place with 111 points while the women are seventh overall at 107 points. Georgia leads the women’s competition with 300 points while Auburn stands first in the men’s meet with 291.
Day three of the SEC Championships gets underway at 10 a.m. Friday with preliminaries in the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke. Live video and results are available through GeorgiaDogs.com, and fans can get up-to-the-minute updates via Twitter by following @GamecockSwim.
