Clemson Cages South Carolina

COLUMBIA, South Carolina, November 3. THE Clemson swimming and diving teams went into the Carolina Natatorium and took two meets from the South Carolina Gamecocks Friday evening. The men were led to a narrow 150-148 victory with a strong performance by Attila Ruszka who collected three wins and a second place.

This improved their record to 4-2 (2-2 ACC) for the season. The Lady Tigers also pulled out a big win behind four first place finishes by Michelle Parkhurst, as they beat South Carolina 154-146. The women will be 3-4 (2-3 ACC) going into the half way point of their season.

The Lady Tigers started the meet solid, relying on their depth to take second and third in the 200 medley relay. Ashley Clay, Alexandra Barsanti, Jen Grove, and Rachel Regone touched the wall in 1:47.10, just ahead of Sarah Ceflau, Kartina Obas, Mary Paulsen, and Lauren Sindall who came in at 1:47.56. Head coach Chris Ip then called on his sophomore class to give Clemson their first lead of the day. First, Cassy LaRussa (10:13.44) and Summer O'Donnell (10:14.23) took the top two spots in the 1000 freestyle by blowing away the competition by over 3 seconds. In the next event, the 200 freestyle, Michelle Parkhurst (1:50.13) took first, and teammed with LaRussa (1:54.07) who finished third, swimming in back-to-back events. Parkhurst (57.28) kept the momentum swinging by winning the 100 backstroke, and joined sophomore Ashley Clay (58.28), and senior captain Mary Paulsen (58.86) with a 1-2-3 sweep of South Carolina. In the 50 freestyle, sophomores Rachel Regone and Lauren Sindall finished first and third with times of 23.52 and 24.34, respectively. After Stephanie Fura finished third to lead Clemson on the one-meter board with a score of 219.75, Regone struck again in the 100 freestyle, winning with a time of 51.34. Parkhurst (2:04.07) claimed her third win of the meet in the 200 backstroke, as Ashley Clay (2:07.06) took second. LaRussa (5:00.56) and O'Donnell (5:02.35) finished 1-2 in the 500 freestyle, sweeping the distance events. To close out the meet, Regone, Parkhurst, O'Donnell, and Sindall won the 400 freestyle relay with a season best time of 3:27.22.

On the men's side, Jay Crout, Attila Ruszka, Stewe Fekete, and Mark Vahle started the meet off on a high note as they won the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:31.84. Sean Geary (9:30.39) added a season best time in the 1000 freestyle to place second. Joel Johnson (50.83) and Jay Crout (51.53) took the top two places for Clemson, and Taylor Thompson (52.21) added a fourth place finish in the 100 backstroke. The Tigers also showed their depth against the Gamecocks as Ruszka (56.31), Andy Bergren (58.24), and Patrick Raisor (1:00.17) finished second, third, and fourth in the 100 breaststroke.

Mark Vahle (20.21) and Stephen Russell (21.11) recorded season bests, and teammed with Brian Regone (21.27) to finish 1-2-3 in the 50 freestyle. Freshman Thomas Recko (1:50.91) nearly missed a win by .02 seconds in the 200 backstroke, but was backed by Matt Angelini (1:52.09) and Taylor Thompson (1:52.28) who claimed third and fourth. Ruszka picked up his second victory of the day in the 200 breaststroke (2:03.71) with a season best time. Mark Vahle (49.55) repeated the task as he also took a victory with a season best time in the 100 butterfly in the next event. In the last individual event of the meet, Ruszka came from over a second back in the final leg of the 200 IM to take the victory, touching the wall in 1:51.52.

Closing out the meet, Clemson finished second (3:03.51) and third (3:06.28) in the 400 freestyle relay.

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