Gamecocks Take Down ECU To Start New Year
South Carolina’s men won 180-120 while the women’s team finished ahead of East Carolina 185-100 on Saturday.
COLUMBIA, S.C.— South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving each picked up dual-meet wins over East Carolina on Saturday at the Carolina Natatorium/ Blatt PE Center. The Gamecock women prevailed 185-100 while the men came out on top 180-120.
“I’m really proud of what I saw today,” said head coach McGee Moody post-meet. “What they did today against a really good ECU team is pretty phenomenal given the training we’ve done over the past two weeks.”
The wins for the South Carolina come on the heels of a two-month break in competition as well as the team’s annual winter team trip to train in Naples, Florida.
“This meet is key to our season,” said head coach McGee Moody. “We need to see how they responded to that training over the last fourteen days. Where most students are just coming back to campus this weekend, our student-athletes have been here since Dec. 27th and we’ve been training hard that entire time.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams swept the two relay events (200 medley relay & 400 free relay) as South Carolina won 24 total events between the two teams on Saturday.
The Gamecocks swept all four diving events between the two genders as Anton Down-Jenkins won both events on the men’s side with Mikaela Lujan (1-meter) and Karlee Price (3-meter) splitting the two boards on the women’s side.
“Today went really well,” said head diving coach Todd Sherritt. “Everyone had solid scores and I was pleasantly surprised. Yu Qian Goh had a great meet as well while Alex Claus also had a solid performance achieving his NCAA Zone score.”
Emma Barksdale continued to wield her versatility, winning the women’s 100 breast (1:01.31) and the 400 IM (4:17.84) in addition to a 1:59.96 in the 200 back.
Fynn Minuth captured a pair of event wins before the first intermission, winning the 200 free (1:38.49) and the 200 fly (1:48.77).
The Gamecocks also continued to watch freshmen rack up team points as Hallie Kinsey (1:50.15, 200 free) and Phil Costin (46.60, 100 free) each had first-place finishes in addition to Kate Sanderson’s wins in the 1000 (9:52.70) and 500 (4:56.85) free.
Gamecock Event Winners:
| NAME | EVENT | TIME |
| Cornell, Higgs, Kinsey, Lappin | 200 MR (W) | 1:43.01 |
| Tosh, Goldfaden, Khoo, Ross | 200 MR (M) | 1:29.83 |
| Kate Sanderson | 1000 free (W) | 9:52.70 |
| Rafael Davila | 1000 free (M) | 9:14.29 |
| Hallie Kinsey | 200 free (W) | 1:50.15 |
| Fynn Minuth | 200 free (M) | 1:38.49 |
| Emily Cornell | 100 back (W) | 56.25 |
| Emma Barksdale | 100 breast (W) | 1:01.31 |
| Lionel Khoo | 100 breast (M) | 54.85 |
| Marissa Delgado | 200 fly (W) | 2:01.91 |
| Fynn Minuth | 200 fly (M) | 1:48.77 |
| Christina Lappin | 50 free (W) | 23.43 |
| Edith Lingmann | 100 free (W) | 51.64 |
| Phil Costin | 100 free (M) | 46.06 |
| Emily Cornell | 200 back (W) | 1:59.76 |
| Albury Higgs | 200 breast (W) | 2:19.77 |
| Kate Sanderson | 500 free (W) | 4:56.86 |
| Fynn Minuth | 500 free (M) | 4:27.82 |
| Christina Lappin | 100 fly (W) | 54.53 |
| Caleb Tosh | 100 fly (M) | 50.08 |
| Emma Barksdale | 400 IM (W) | 4:17.84 |
| Cody Bekemeyer | 400 IM (M) | 3:58.19 |
| Cornell, Lingmann, Novoszath, Lappin | 400 FR (W) | 3:26.48 |
| Tosh, Ross, Costin, Novoszath | 400 FR (M) | 3:04.93 |
Quotable- Head Coach McGee Moody:
“I was happy with the racing today and I was surprised by the speed to be honest with you. I was really pleased with our intensity and our focus going into the meet. We’re in a pretty good place right now moving forward as we get ready to go into Georgia Tech and onto the championship season in a few weeks.”
Quotable- Head Diving Coach Todd Sherritt:
“We had a long week and trained really hard. We were a little beat up coming into the day but everyone stepped up and did a great job. I’m very pleased with everyone after today and we’re really looking forward as a team to taking on Georgia Tech next week.”
Up Next:
South Carolina now turns its attention to its final dual-meet of the season next week when they travel to face Georgia Tech on Sat., Jan. 19, at the McAuley Aquatic Center.
For more swimming updates, follow South Carolina Swimming and Diving on Twitter at @GamecockSwim.
