March 17, 2012

AUBURN, Ala. — South Carolina had its best day of swimming preliminaries on Saturday morning at the 2012 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.

Sophomore Amanda Rutqvist advanced to tonight’s consolation final with an 11th-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:09.82. The finish guarantees Rutqvist the third All-America honor of her career. She finished fifth in the event at last year’s championship with a school-record time of 2:07.86. The Gamecocks enter the finals in 25th place, with Rutqvist guaranteed to score at least one point in the consolation final.

Teammate Rachael Schaffer also swam the 200 breaststroke and finished 44th overall in a time of 2:14.11.

On the boards, senior Courtney Forcucci wrapped up one of the best NCAA Championships for a diver in South Carolina history with a 19th-place showing in the platform competition with a score of 237.25. Forcucci came up just 7.35 points shy of becoming the first Gamecock diver to earn three All-America honors at the same NCAA Championship. She finished 15th on the one-meter springboard to begin the week and claimed fifth on the three-meter board on Friday to earn her first two All-America honors as a Gamecock.

Tonight’s finals are scheduled to begin at 7 CT. Live results are available at NCAA.com, and live video will be available at WatchESPN.com.