Gamecocks Dominate Senior Day in the Pool

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina was victorious in the pool on Senior Day, defeating Gardner-Webb on both the women’s and men’s sides in its final home dual meet of the 2020-21 season. Both teams were impressive with the women winning 185-74, and the men victorious by a margin of 171-90.  

Prior to the start of the meet, the Gamecocks honored and gave special recognition to Tamas Novoszath (Szeged, Hungary), Rebecca Cohen (Atlanta, Ga.), Yu Qian Goh (Wellington, New Zealand), Savannah Hillmeyer (Lexington, S.C.), Lauren Hilt (Appleton, Wisc.), Emma Otten (Cincinnati, Ohio), Jenna Pehowski (Fort Mill, S.C.) and Caroline Spence (Lafayette, La.).

GAMECOCK NOTABLES

• Both teams notched 11 wins each in the 32-event dual meet.
• Freshman Hayley Mason had a big day on the women’s side winning the 200 back (2:00.11) and the 500 free (5:02.88) shortly after.
• Sophmore Anne Tavierne posted a solid time of 1:49.54 in her win in the 200 free.
• Junior Mari Kraus picked up another event win during the 2020-21 season in the 200 IM (2:04.92).  
• Senior Jenna Pehowski finished her career at Carolina Natoritum on a high note with a victory in the 100 free (51.39).
• An all senior relay team of Emma Otten, Caroline Spence, Danielle Doennebrink and Lauren Hilt started the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay (1:43.76).
• On the men’s side, sophomore Guy Gropper (20.64), junior Phil Costin (20.66) and sophomore Mark Shperkin (20.76) went 1-2-3 in the 50 free.  
• Freshman Connor Daniels won the 200 free with a time of 1:38.01.  Senior Tamas Novoszath finished just behind Daniels with a time of 1:38.10. Novoszath would win the 500 free (4:31.38) later in the meet by nearly 12 seconds – his final individual race in Carolina Natatorium.
• Sophomore Chase Allison won the 200 IM with a time of 1:50.60.
• Transfer Luke Massey made his Gamecock debut and notched a pair of wins in the 100 breast (54.38) and 200 breast (2:02.24). He was also a part of the winning 200 medley relay team.  
• The 400 free relay team of Robbie Epler, Rafael Davila, Gropper and Shperkin ended the meet with a victory in the 400 free relay (3:01.98).

HEAD COACH MCGEE MOODY ON THE TEAM’S PERFORMANCE
“Today was good – this was probably our best overall performance as a team this year. We haven’t had a whole lot of opportunities to race. We talked about it in the preview last week, we have to take advantage of every opportunity that we have. We did take advantage of this meet to get some third event swims in for SECs and practice those races a little bit. There was some really fast times and we had some people swim over or above where we expected them too. I was so proud of the team. I’m happy for our seniors. This was their final home meet and they have had a stressful year to say the least. For them to step up and lead like they have has been awesome.”

UP NEXT FOR THE GAMECOCKS
South Carolina hits the road for what will be its third meet in the last eight days, facing North Carolina on Sunday in Chapel Hill for the regular season finale. The Gamecocks will then be off to prepare and train for the SEC Championships in late February. This year’s conference meet has been split into three separate events due to COVID-19.

For more swimming updates, follow South Carolina Swimming and Diving on Twitter at @GamecockSwim.

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