South Carolina Women, North Carolina Men Finish off Gamecock Invitational Wins
The South Carolina women’s team and North Carolina’s men finished off the Gamecock Invitational on Friday atop the team standings.
On the women’s side, the Gamecocks outgained the Tar Heels by more than 200 points, thanks to three swimmers who picked up their second win of the meet on Friday at the Carolina Natatorium. The margin for the North Carolina men was nearly 300 points.
Delaney Franklin, Jordan Agliano and Amy Riordan each picked up their second wins of the meet for South Carolina. Franklin claimed the 200 individual medley in 1:57.15, holding off a charge in the last 50 yards from UNC’s Mary Macaulay, who got within .07 seconds at the wall. Both times are under the NCAA standard.
Agliano competed the butterfly sweep by winning the 200 in a similarly engrossing race. Agliano went 1:55.86. She was .13 ahead of UNC’s Taylor Bloom, who went 1:55.98. Both are NCAA cuts.
Riordan pulled away from the field in the 200 backstroke to win in 1:52.59. That gets her to NCAAs. UNC’s Emma Karam was second in 1:54.47, also under the NCAA standard. Teammate Sophia Frei was .16 over the mark in third place in 1:54.96.
Gamecock Invitational Women’s Scores
- South Carolina, 1506.5
- North Carolina, 1298.5
- Tampa, 808
- East Carolina, 524
- North Florida, 290.5
- Georgia Southern, 248
- Florida Southern, 233.5
- Carson-Newman, 156
- SCAD,* 244
Gamecock Invitational Women’s Scores
- North Carolina, 1396
- Tampa, 1104.5
- South Carolina, 1055.5
- Florida Southern, 624
- Carson-Newman, 425
- SCAD,* 294 (*SCAD was separated from NCAA team scoring due to being an NAIA program.)
North Carolina’s Kamryn Meskill won the 100 free in 49.20. She bested South Carolina’s Dylan Scholes, who went 49.64. UNC’s Michaela Chokureva was third in 49.81. The Carolinas took the top five spots, setting up an intriguing 400 free relay. The Gamecocks prevailed in 3:16.83, .21 ahead of the Tar Heels. Ellery Ottem made the difference on the anchor leg, her 49.31 rallying them to the win. Riordan handed off to Scholes and Samantha Chan. The UNC quartet was Chokureva, Meskill (48.18), Maren Conze and Mackenzie Headley.
UNC started the day with a sweep of the top four spots in the 200 IM. Louis Dramm routed the field in the 200 IM, his 1:41.92 well ahead of the field and an NCAA cut. Ben Delmar missed that time by .15 seconds in 1:44.28. Sean Setzer won the 100 free in 43.28, teammate David Quaresma second in 43.55. Seb Lunak and Colin Whelehan went 1-2 in the 200 fly. Lunak’s time of 1:42.09 was well under the NCAA standard, but Whelehan’s was the nail-biter, going 1:43.76 to get .03 under the standard.
UNC continued the sweep thanks to JT Schmid in the 200 back. He went 1:41.42. That’s an NCAA cut, and it was enough to hold off Merlin Ficher of South Carolina. Ficher’s 1:41.79 is also NCAA worthy. David Melnychuk of UNC was third in 1:42.79.
UNC finished it off with a1-3 finish in the 400 free relay. The A squad of Dramm, Setzer, Quaresma and Martin Kartavi produced four 42s to go 2:50.02, an NCAA provisional time.
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