Gamecocks Out in Front Following Day One of S.C. College Invite
Carolina student-athletes won 12 of the 18 events on the first of two days of competition from the Carolina Natatorium.
COLUMBIA, S.C.— South Carolina divers swept the two springboard events while a combined total of 10 men’s and women’s swimmers came away with first-place finishes on day one of the S.C. College Invite at the Carolina Natatorium/Blatt PE Center.
The Gamecocks’ women followed up a dominant dual-meet at Georgia Tech with a 200 free relay win to kick things off. The second event of the day saw Carolina go 1st-2nd-3rd in the 200 IM with Emma Barksdale nearly dominating the field with a 1:59.45.
Anton Down-Jenkins remained unbeaten in dual-meets after tallying up a 342.68 to win the 1-meter springboard. Mikaela Lujan captured a 334.35 to win the women’s 3-meter board on day one of her final home meet as a Gamecock.
In the first distance event of the weekend, Kate Sanderson reached her sub-five minute mark in the 500 free, finishing at 4:57.13 to win the women’s heat.
“Queens and Wingate are two great local teams that have a lot of good talent— a lot of international talent. UNC Wilmington is coached by one of our former associate head coaches, Jason Memot, and they’re doing a great job in the CAA right now,” said head coach McGee Moody.
“We’re swimming pretty well for the type of training that we’ve been doing. Tomorrow we’ll probably change some things up in our lineup, but all-in-all I was pretty pleased.”
Gamecock Event Winners:
| NAME | EVENT | TIME |
| Lappin, Novoszath, Lingmann, Styer | 200 FR (W) | 1:33.65 |
| Emma Barksdale | 200 IM (W) | 1:59.45 |
| Kate Sanderson | 500 free (W) | 4:57.13 |
| Ana Menendez-Nava | 100 breast (W) | 1:03.29 |
| Lionel Khoo | 100 breast (M) | 54.35 |
| Mari Kraus | 200 back (W) | 2:01.97 |
| Melinda Novoszath | 200 fly (W) | 1:59.22 |
| Fynn Minuth | 1:46.18 (M) | 1:46.18 |
| Kraus, Barksdale, Kinsey, Novoszath | 400 MR (W) | 3:43.62 |
Quotable- Head Coach McGee Moody:
“”This is an interesting point in our season because we’re getting ready to start our championship season. We haven’t necessarily started our rest for championships season yet— we’re still training pretty hard.”
Quotable- Head Diving Coach Todd Sherritt:
“I think they’ve done all of the work. With our sport, you’ve got conference championships, zone championships and then right into NCAA’s and so the peaking process is very difficult—you almost have to do it on an individual basis and I feel like we’re right on the money.”
Up Next:
The S.C. College Invite will conclude on Saturday with senior day recognition to proceed the races beginning at 9:45 a.m.
Saturday Schedule of Events:
200 Medley Relay
1000 Free
100 Fly
200 Breast
100 Back
50 Free
15 minute break
200 Free
400 IM
15 minute break
400 Free Relay
For more swimming updates, follow South Carolina Swimming and Diving on Twitter at @GamecockSwim.
