Oct. 18, 2012
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina swimming and diving teams turned in some of the fastest times in the country last Saturday in their tri meet with national powers Texas A&M and North Carolina.
The Gamecocks recorded 21 times ranked in the top 25 of the latest USA Swimming Top Times Report. Junior Michael Flach is responsible for three of those times as he is ranked first in the 200-yard freestyle (1:38.56), fourth in the 200-yard butterfly (1:48.69) and sixth in the 200-yard IM (1:50.95).
“Given the way we swam and seeing how our times stacked up against the rest of the country, you have an idea of how fast our meet actually was in comparison to everybody else,” South Carolina head coach McGee Moody said. “I don’t think we’ve ever had this many people ranked nationally this early, but it is just that. It’s early, and we’ve still got a long way to go. I’m very proud of the work we’ve put in, but we have to keep developing.”
South Carolina will return to action at home against Florida on Oct. 26. The meet is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at the Blatt P.E. Center/Carolina Natatorium.
USA Swimming Top Times Rankings
Men200 FreestyleRank Swimmer Time1. Michael Flach 1:38.564. Gerard Rodriguez 1:38.77
500 Freestyle5. Marwan El Kamash 4:31.2718. Gerard Rodriguez 4:34.9925. Brooks Ross 4:36.34
1000 Freestyle7. Marwan El Kamash 9:21.2112. Brooks Ross 9:29.02
100 Backstroke18. Michael Covert 50.93
200 Breaststroke4. Matt Navata 2:03.1324. Alex Vance 2:06.59
100 Butterfly9. Collin Kaden 49.68
200 Butterfly4. Michael Flach 1:48.69
200 IM6. Michael Flach 1:50.957. Matt Navata 1:51.24
400 Freestyle Relay4. El Kamash, Rodriguez, 3:02.05 Kaden, Flach
200 Medley Relay13. Narayan Naik, Graham Kauffman, 1:32.59 Kaden, Alex Fitton
Women100 Breaststroke7. Amanda Rutqvist 1:03.14
200 Breaststroke4. Amanda Rutqvist 2:14.87
100 Butterfly19. Casey Papp 56.05
200 Butterfly12. Annika Jonsson 2:02.52
200 Medley Relay15. Nicole Mertel, Rutqvist, 1:45.16 Papp, Rachel Elliott
