Gamecocks Remain Strong Through Second Day of Invitationals
Columbia, S.C. – The South Carolina swimming and diving teams both completed their second day of action at each teams’ respective invites on Thursday.
For the swimmers at home, the women continued to dominate the field, winning all but one event thus far and posting numerous personal best times. The Gamecock women are currently in first place in team scoring with 1,304 points. The next closest team is Vanderbilt with 730.50 points.
The men’s swim team currently sits at second place in their scoring, behind only Tampa. Tampa leads the way with 1076.50 points while the Gamecocks have 852.50 points.
For the dive team at the Tennessee Invitational, only one Gamecock made an appearance in the finals on the day but came away with a fourth-place finish.
Gamecock Invitational
South Carolina’s women started the night off strong with a 1-2 finish in the 200 medley relay. The ‘A’ team of Bella Pantano, Lien Yu, Nicholle Toh, and Dylan Scholes claimed first with a 1:38.49, the fastest time on the team so far this season. They were followed closely behind by the ‘B’ relay team of Amy Riordan, Annaliese Streeter, Greta Pelzek and Aubrey Chandler who combined for 1:38.79.
For the men’s 200 medley relay Michael Laitarovsky, Daniel West, Ahmed Rateb, and Mark Shperkin were the highest placing for the team. The group swam a time of 1:26.72.
The A finals of the women’s 400 IM was loaded with Gamecocks with South Carolina swimmers making up five of the ten finalists. Meaghan Harnish and Laura Goettler broke away from the rest of the group and touched in near unison for a 1-2 finish. Harnish touched first in 4:14.36 while Goettler was right on her heels with a 4:14.67. The pair finished over seven full seconds ahead of the third-place finisher.
Raymond Prosinski was the top finisher for the men in the 400 IM, placing third. His time of 3:49.84 was a new personal best and shaved over five seconds off of his previous personal best time.
The A finals of the women’s 100 fly was also half Gamecocks with South Carolina entering with four of the top six seeds. The team made the most of the opportunity, completing a 1-2-3 finish in the event. Pelzek touched first (52.10) followed by Toh (52.83), and Jordan Agliano (53.38). The times were new personal bests for both Pelzek and Agliano. Pelzek now sits at No. 2 in the program’s all-time top-10 while Agliano sits in sixth.
In the men’s 100 fly, Laitarovsky led the team with a second-place finish. He touched in 47.21 in the finals, however his prelim time of 46.97 was a new personal best for the junior.
Riordan claimed the win in the 200 free for the women’s team with a time of 1:45.00. She was less than a second off from her recently-set school and pool record of 1:44.31 that she placed during South Carolina’s dual versus North Carolina. Riordan was followed in second place by freshman Ellery Ottem who swam a new personal best time of 1:48.52.
Sophomore Jose Castro was South Carolina’s top performer in the men’s 200 free. He swam a 1:36.81 to place second. Fellow sophomore Kyle Korvick finished in fifth place (1:39.26) while freshman Connor Fry finished sixth (1:40.11).
In the women’s 100 breast, Yu hit a new career-best time. The freshman touched in 1:01.69 for second place. Her time is the fastest on the team so far this season.
Liam Kerns earned the first individual event win for the men’s team in the 100 breast. From lane 8, Kerns fired off a 54.53 for the win. His time is the fastest on the team so far this season and was over half a second faster than his prelim time.
The Gamecock women pulled off another 1-2-3 finish in the 100 back with Pantano in first (53.04), Scholes in second (53.10) and Faith Khoo in third (54.11). The times were new personal bests for both Scholes and Khoo.
Laitarovsky remained perfect in the 100 back with a first-place finish. His time of 47.28 got the job done and is his fastest time of the season. The Natanya, Israel, native is the program record holder in the event with a time of 45.27 that he set at the 2022 SEC Championships.
The women wrapped up their night just the same as they started it – with a 1-2 relay finish. In first was Agliano, Riordan, Ottem, and Scholes with a 7:11.56, followed in second by Harnish, Peyton Curry, Chandler, and Breckin Gormley with a 7:19.17.
The men closed out the night with a second-place finish in the 800 free relay. Castro, Ahmed Rateb, Wylie Kruse, and Prosinski combined for a time of 6:34.17.
Tennessee Invitational
The Gamecock women competed in their first platform event of the season in Knoxville on Thursday. Junior Blair Isenhour led the team with an 18th place finish, followed by graduate Josie Matalone in 19th.
On the men’s 3-meter board, sophomore Max Spencer was the team’s top performer of the day. In the prelims, Spencer scored of 317.60 for tenth place to book his place in the finals. He made the most out of his fresh set of dives, bumping his score up to 342.10 to jump up to fourth place overall.
For all the latest South Carolina swimming and diving information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockSwmDive).
Tennessee Invitational Results
Women’s Platform
18 – Blair Isenhour – 204.55
19 – Josie Matalone – 204.40
25 – Mak Blake – 176.60
Men’s 3-meter
Prelims
10 – Max Spencer – 317.60
19 – Tyler Hoard – 259.30
25 – Charley Bayer – 65.10
Finals
4 – Max Spencer – 342.10
