Gamecock Swimming & Diving Hosts Duke, Queens to Open 2012 Schedule
COLUMBIA,
S.C. — After going through a grueling winter workout schedule, the
South Carolina swimming and diving teams are set to open the 2012
portion of the schedule on Saturday at home in a meet with Duke and
Queens University of Charlotte.
The diving portion of the meet
will begin at 1 p.m. with the swimming events scheduled to get underway
at 2 in the Blatt P.E. Center/Carolina Natatorium. South Carolina head
coach McGee Moody is pleased with the amount of work his teams put in
during the winter break.
“They have done a really great job,”
Moody said. “They’ve done a lot of yardage and a lot of high intensity
work. This is really the time of the year where we start to set up our
rest for the SEC Championships and the postseason. We also have to take
into account this year what happens after the NCAA Championships and
the direction we are going with our summer training too. A lot of that
went into our planning. We had a great break.”
The Gamecock
women enter the meet at 3-2 overall, while the men are 2-3 on the
season. Carolina closed out its fall schedule at the Nike Cup
Invitational on Nov. 17-19 in Chapel Hill, N.C., where the women
finished third and the men claimed fourth.
Sophomore Rachael
Schaffer led the way at the Nike Cup, achieving NCAA provisional
qualifying times in the 200 breaststroke, 200 IM and 400 IM. Sophomore
Amanda Rutqvist swam B cuts in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, and
sophomore Abby Galbreath also recorded a B cut time in the 400 IM. On
the boards, senior Courtney Forcucci finished first and second,
respectively, on the one and three-meter springboards, while junior
Rylan Ridenour finished second in both events in the men’s competition.
Saturday’s
matchup marks the 12th meeting all-time between the Gamecock men and
Duke, with Carolina holding an 8-3 advantage in the series. The
Carolina women have a 4-2 edge all-time against the Blue Devils. In
last year’s meet in Durham, N.C., the Carolina men claimed a 165-135
victory, while the women dropped a 160-140 decision. Duke competed
against the Gamecocks in the Nike Cup Invitational this season, with
the Blue Devil men’s squad taking third and the women finishing second.
“Duke
is a program a lot like ours,” Moody said. “They have some very
talented athletes. I think Saturday is going to be a great meet. It
will give us some of our closest races probably of the year. We are
going to have to be ready to compete. It’s always an interesting time
of the year because it’s our first competition coming back from break.”
Queens
is in just its second year of competing at the NCAA Division II level
in swimming but it has had a strong showing in 2011-12. The Royals men
are 7-1 on the year, including a win over College of Charleston, while
the Queens women have a record of 8-2. The Gamecocks swept Queens last
year, winning the men’s competition, 247-41, and the women’s meet by a
score of 249-24.
“Queens is a program that just started up a few
years ago, and coach (Jeff) Dugdale is in the process of building that
program up. He’s done a really good job,” Moody said. “They’ve got some
good athletes that are coming in and are getting more and more
competitive every year.”
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