Gamecock Invitational, Day Two

COLUMBIA, South Carolina, November 20. THE University of North Carolina's Jenna Moore and David MacDonald set school records in women's one-meter and men's three-meter diving, respectively, as the University of North Carolina increased its lead on the second day of the 2009 Gamecock Invitational at the Carolina Natatorium.

Moore's score of 290.25 on the one-meter board allowed the sophomore to break the previous school record set by Mandi Arak in 2005 with 283.50 points. MacDonald shattered both the Carolina Natatorium pool record for men's three-meter diving which was 409 points, but he also took down Ryan Funderburk's school record mark of 413.25 points which had been set in 2007. MacDonald's score Friday was 447.50 points as he beat the second-place finisher in the event by almost 60 points.

In the team race, the Tar Heel women lead the competition with 824 points after the second day, followed by Duke with 526, East Carolina with 355.5, South Carolina with 333.5, James Madison with 142, Florida with 129, Georgia Southern with 91, Old Dominion with 75 and College of Charleston with four points.

On the men's side, the Tar Heels lead the meet with 795.5 points followed in second place by the host Gamecocks with 578.5 points. Duke is third with 341 points, followed by Florida with 288, East Carolina with 262, the College of Charleston with 136 and Old Dominion with 79.

"We had a lot of outstanding swimming and diving performances tonight," said Tar Heel head coach Rich DeSelm. "We set two school records in diving today as Jenna Moore took down the women's one-meter record and David MacDonald completely shattered the three-meter mark. Kevin Lawrence told me that David MacDonald dove an NCAA Championships level contest in terms of his performance."

The Carolina women won both relay events Friday while the Tar Heel men split the relay wins with host South Carolina. Senior Alison Clemens won two individual titles for the UNC women, while Tommy Wyher did the same on the men's side for the Tar Heels. Both Rebecca Kane and Megan Steeves won individual events for the Tar Heels while also swimming on two winning relay teams.

"We had a lot of people swim multiple events today," said DeSelm. "On the women's side Alison Clemens won two events, taking both the 400 IM and the 100 breaststroke. It's her first meet of the year and it's nice to have her back her back in the lineup and racing tough.

"Rebecca Kane won the 200 free and was on two winning relays while Megan Steeves was very good as well. She won the 100 back and was on two winning relays. Top to bottom, we are deeper than we were last year. It's fun to see a lot of competition within our own team. We are looking forward to racing tomorrow."

DeSelm was equally pleased with the men's performance, which included two wins by Tommy Wyher, a sweep in the 200-yard freestyle and a second individual win of the meet by junior Tyler Harris.

"Tommy Wyher had the big double tonight with wins in both 100-yard sprint events in back and fly," said DeSelm. "Tyler Harris picked up his second win of the meet in the 400 IM. We also finished 1-2-3-4 in the 200 free.

"As a coach it is fun for me watch this progression because a couple of years ago we pretty much knew who was going to win each event. Now the top performer for UNC in each event is up for grabs. It speaks to our improving depth."

The Tar Heels started out the evening with a win in the women's 200-yard medley relay as Megan Steeves, Layne Brodie, Sarah Tanner and Rebecca Kane finished almost a full second ahead of the second-place relay in 1:43.60. USC edged the Tar Heels' top 200-yard medley relay team by .21 of a second as the UNC team of Jim Flannery, Vinny Pryor, Jason McLaughlin and Jeff James took second place in 1:32.88.

Alison Clemens won her first event of the night with a time of 4:22.84 in the 400-yard individual medley as she took first lace by 1.26 seconds. On the men's side, Tyler Harris went his season best in the 400 IM, winning in 3:51.10. He blew away the rest of the field as Florida's Brian Howell finished second, 5.11 seconds behind Harris.

Duke's Shannon Beall was the victor in the women's 100-yard butterfly at 55 seconds flat while sophomore Sarah Tanner was UNC's top finisher in the event with a third-place finish, going 55.93. On the men's side, junior Tommy Wyher won the first of his two events for UNC on the night, going an NCAA "B" qualifying time of 48.07, beating the second place time by 1.5 seconds.

Carolina swimmers engineered a sweep of the 200-yard freestyle events. Rebecca Kane won the women's event in 1:49.34, nosing out South Carolina's Claire Thompson by .02 of a second. The Carolina men were dominant with Evan Reed taking the top spot in 1:38.13, winning by 1.75 seconds over his teammate Wil Singley, who placed second. UNC's Steve Cebertowicz, Hank Browning and Chip Peterson went 3-4-6, respectively as UNC had five of the top six finishers in the event.

Clemens won her second event of the night as she scored a narrow win the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:04.06, .12 ahead of ECU's Stephanie Harper. The College of Charleston's Randy Buchanan won the men's 100-yard breaststroke in 55.08. UNC's top finisher was junior Flynn Jones in third place at 56.42.

"Flynn Jones continues to impress.," said DeSelm. "He was an essentially a non-recruited swimmer who is now right with or ahead of all of our breaststrokers. That's very rewarding for him and our team and everyone involved. It is a great story."

Carolina swept the backstroke events with Megan Steeves winning on the women's side in 55.77 seconds. On the men's side, UNC swimmers finished 1-2-4-6-8 in the championship final with junior Tommy Wyher taking the win in 48.78 and junior Josh Hafkin finishing second in 50.26.

In the diving events, Taryn Zack of USC took the women's one-meter title with 332.60 points while Jenna Moore finished second for UNC in a school record of 290.25. David MacDonald's school record score of 447.50 led UNC divers to a 1-3-4-5-7 finish in men's three-meter diving. Rylan Ridenour of USC was second in 390.80, followed by UNC's David Solarz, Ryland Jones and Jake Kinzbach.

UNC swimmers swept the 800-yard freestyle relay events. Rebecca Kane, Megan Steeves, Katura Harvey and Eliza Butts touched first on the women's side in 7:27.70, while the UNC men's relay of Hank Browning, Wil Singley, Evan Reed and Chip Peterson won in 6:41.43, a time which was 1.34 seconds ahead of the second-place Gamecocks.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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