Swimming & Diving Falls at Duke
Durham, N.C. – South Carolina swimming & diving was swept by Duke in their Friday night meet. The Blue Devil women earned the win 187-113 while their men won 182-116. The Gamecock women won three individual events while the men won five. South Carolina was led by their upperclassmen with graduate Brooke Schultz and fifth-year senior Rafael Davila each bringing home a pair of event wins.
Gamecock Notables
- The Gamecock’s 200 medley relay squad of Tia Salcutan, Georgia Johnson, Nicholle Toh, and Aubrey Chandler swam a season-best time of 1:41.35 which was good for third place overall.
- Freshman Amy Riordan swam her first collegiate 200 back where she placed first with a 1:59.60. She was closely followed by Salcutan who placed second with a 1:59.77.
- Victoria Kwan, Toh, and Greta Pelzek went 2-3-4 in the 200 fly. Kwan swam a 1:59.97 and is the first Gamecock to go sub-two minutes so far this season.
- Janie Smith and Dylan Scholes went 2-3 in the 100 free. Smith touched the wall in 51.01 seconds and Scholes touched in 51.22 seconds.
- Schultz earned her third springboard sweep of the season, scoring a 344.48 in the 1-meter event and a 353.55 in the 3-meter event. Schultz’s score in the 1-meter dive broke Duke’s pool record of 335.85 set by Virginia Tech’s Kaylea Arnett in 2014.
- Davila earned his fourth straight win in the 1000 free with a 9:15.13. He was followed in second place by freshman Kyle Korvick who swam a 9:31.57 in his first collegiate 1000 free event. Davila also placed first in the 500 free with a time of 4:30.49, followed by freshman Jose Castro who swam a 4:35.59.
- Graduate Erge Gezmis swam a season-best time of 1:39.27 in the 200 free which was good for second place.
- Sophomore Michael Laitarovsky won his third 100 back event of the season with a time of 48.26.
- Junior Daniel West placed second in the 100 breast with a time of 56.22 and third in the 200 breast with a time of 2:04.85.
- The Gamecock men went 1-2-3 the 200 fly with Luke DeVore earning his fourth consecutive win in the event, followed closely by freshman Gage Hulbert in second and senior Chase Allison in third.
- Jay Baker earned his first career win as a Gamecock, placing first in the 200 back with a time of 1:47.61.
- Freshman Charley Bayer placed second in both springboard events. He scored a 319.88 on the 1-meter and a 336.15 on the 3-meter.
Head Coach Jeff Poppell on the team’s performance
“We got beat tonight by a really strong Duke team. We had several individuals that posted their best performances of the season however unfortunately we had an equal number of athletes that had their worst performances of the season. As I told our team, that’s just not who we are as a team. If we are going to win meets, we need all of our athletes performing at a high level at the same time collectively. Tomorrow, we wake up and compete in a second meet against UNC. It will definitely be a tough test competing in back to back meets but a great simulation for what we will experience at the SEC Championships over multiple days in February.”
Up next for the Gamecocks
South Carolina Swimming & Diving will travel up the road to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina. The meet will take place Saturday, Nov. 5, with diving beginning at 10 a.m. and swimming starting at 11 a.m. Live streaming will be available on ACCNX and live results will be provided on the Meet Mobile app.
For all the latest South Carolina swimming and diving information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockSwim).
