Swim & Dive Welcomes Texas A&M and Virginia Tech for Home Opener
Columbia, S.C. – South Carolina swimming & diving will begin the home portion of their schedule this Saturday, October 7, hosting a tri-meet with SEC foe Texas A&M and the ACC’s Virginia Tech.
Both swimming & diving will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Carolina Natatorium. Admission to the meet is free and open to the public with doors opening one hour prior to the start of the meet. Parking will be available for spectators in the lot adjacent to the Blatt P.E. Center. Live results will be available on the subscription-based Meet Mobile platform.
This meet will also serve as the team’s annual breast cancer awareness meet in which members of the team will honor those close to them who have been effected by the disease. Spectators are invited to wear pink in support of the cause.
South Carolina’s women’s team is coming off a strong showing over UNCW’s women in their home pool in Wilmington. The Gamecocks claimed the win 181-119 with a number of notable performances from newcomers.
Graduate transfer Duda Sumida wasted no time in solidifying herself as a consistent all-around swimmer, claiming a pair of victories for the team in the 1000 free and the 400 IM.
Another notable newcomer was freshman Carolina Chasser who claimed the win in the 100 back and had two solid exhibition swims.
For the divers, both junior Blair Isenhour and freshman Mak Blake tallied wins with Blake’s on the 1-meter board and Isenhour’s on the 3-meter.
The men’s team is coming off of a narrow loss against the Seahawks in their season opener, falling 142-158 in Wilmington. Despite the loss, the Gamecocks tallied eight individual event wins.
Two of those wins came courtesy of freshman Connor Fry who swept the distance events with wins in the 1000 and 500 free races. His 1000 free win was nearly ten second ahead of the rest of the pack and 20 second ahead of the closest Seahawk.
On the dive side of things, fellow freshman Max Spencer proved himself with a springboard sweep to start his collegiate career. The Essex, England, native was the only diver at the meet to achieve NCAA Zone Qualifying scores in both of his events.
Against Texas A&M, South Carolina’s men are even in the all-time series at 1-1 while the Gamecock women trail 0-2 to the Aggie women. The two programs have only faced twice in dual meets since Texas A&M joined the SEC – once in 2013 in Columbia and again in 2017 in College Station.
Against Virginia Tech, South Carolina’s men lead the all-time series 13-2 while the women lead 11-3. The two programs competed against each other consistently during the 1980s and 90s but have not faced in a dual meet since 2010.
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