Gamecock Invitational, Day Three

COLUMBIA, South Carolina, November 21. THE University of North Carolina men's and women's swimming and diving teams concluded a successful weekend by taking team victories in the Gamecock Invitational at the Carolina Natatorium. The UNC women won the team title by a margin of 408 points over runnerup Duke while the UNC men had a separation of 342 points over second-place South Carolina.

Redshirt sophomore David MacDonald continued to shine as he set his second school record in two days, taking top honors in men's one-meter diving MacDonald had a score of 367.45 points on Saturday night to break the old school standard of 345.85 points set by Ryan Funderburk in 2006. On Friday night, MacDonald also broke Funderburk's school record in three-meter diving.

"What I really liked all weekend was the spirit of the team and the attitude our team went into this meet with," said UNC head coach Rich DeSelm. "There were a lot of gutsy swims from us this weekend. I was really pleased with the effort of our swimmers and divers and with the team unity we exhibited. It is great to win invitational championships, but the most important thing we wanted to accomplish was to put the best swims of the season so far in the books and I think we did that.

"We had some individuals who had fantastic weekends. David MacDonald was spectacular on the boards. He won two events and he set two school records. His scores were spectacular. He broke both records by a significant margin."

On the final night of competition, the Tar Heel women took home individual honors in a pair of events with sophomore Laura Moriarty winning the 200-yard breaststroke and freshman Katie Nolan taking home first place in the 200-yard butterfly.

Carolina's men were particularly impressive on Saturday night, winning titles in four individual events and the 400-yard freestyle relay. Chip Peterson, Tommy Wyher, Steve Cebertowicz and David MacDonald had the individual wins with Wyher capturing his third event of the meet and Cebertowicz and MacDonald both taking home a second title.

The Tar Heel women ran away with the title with 1,162 points, followed by Duke with 754, South Carolina with 530.5, East Carolina with 499.5, Florida with 206, James Madison with 194, Georgia Southern with 116, Old Dominion with 99 and College of Charleston with 4.

The UNC men ran up 1,214 points to run away with the team victory with South Carolina taking second place with 872 points. Duke was third with 448 and Florida fourth with 385. ECU had 370, College of Charleston 161 and Old Dominion 115.

North Carolina swimmers took second and third place in the women's 1650-yard freestyle as juniors Katura Harvey and Ashley Miller finished just a second apart at 16:43.27 and 16:44.32. Duke's Ashley Twichell won the event by a wide margin, taking first place in 16:11.57.

The Carolina men dominated the 1650-yard freestyle with a trio of juniors – Chip Peterson, Joe Kinderwater and Tyler Harris – going 1-2-3 in the event, all in NCAA "B" qualifying times. Peterson and Kinderwater showed their great racing abilities as they finished less than a second apart. Peterson won the event in 15:12.49 while Kinderwater was second at 15:13.22.

"All four swimmers in the women's mile did season best times," said DeSelm. "Given where we are in their training, I was pleased with the distance freestylers. On the men's side, Chip and Joe swam stroke-for-stroke for 15 minutes. They both know each other so well and know how to race each other so any other result would have been surprising. They put up two very good times and Tyler Harris had his career lifetime time in the 1650. All in all, the distance group is on track for some big things this year."

"I was also very happy with the stroke events," added DeSelm. "We had some solid performances. I think we are a lot deeper and a lot stronger than last year in those events.

Duke's women won their second straight event when Cara Vogel took the top spot in the 200-yard backstroke in 2:01.84. Freshman Rebecca Brooks was the top finisher for the Heels in fifth place with a time of 2:03.09 while senior Ashley Howard placed sixth.

In the men's 200-yard backstroke, junior Tommy Wyher won his third individual event of the meet as he won the event in 1:49.71, 23 one-hundredths of a second ahead of the Blue Devils' Spencer Booth. Wyher also won titles in the 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard butterfly on Friday night. UNC junior Andy Brake finished fifth and sophomore Jim Flannery grabbed sixth place.

"Tommy Wyher is one of those guys who knows how to get his hand on the wall." Said DeSelm. "His training has been outstanding. He's a powerful and impressive swimmer. He doesn't like to lose and his performances this weekend were indicative of that."

While Sharntelle McLean of the host Gamecocks won the title in the 100-yard freestyle in 50.35, it was the depth of the Carolina women which stood out in the event. Tar Heel swimmers finished 2-4-5-6-7-8, grabbing six of the spot in the final eight. Rebecca Kane was the top finishers amongst the Tar Heel group with a time of 50.45 seconds, good for second place.

The Tar Heel men did even better than the women in the 100-yard freestyle again placing six swimmers in the final 8, going 1-2-4-5-7-8 in the event. Sophomore Steve Cebertowicz earned his second title of the meet in 44.88 seconds. He also won the 50 free on Thursday. Evan Reed was second with Hank Browning fourth and Brock Park fifth.

"I asked the team to show each other something special tonight and Steve Cebertowicz did just that by going under 45 seconds in the 100 free," said DeSelm. "Steve is really developing into a terrific swimmer. He can put up excellent times in any of the freestyles. He's really coming into his own."

Tar Heel swimmers dominated the women's 200-yard breaststroke as the team took home the top three places in the event. Sophomore Laura Moriarty took first place in 2:15.55 while senior Alison Clemens also had an NCAA "B" qualifying time if 2:16.75 to finish second and Layne Brodie garnered third place.

"Laura Moriarty did not come down to compete in the meet until yesterday afternoon because she took a test Friday. This morning she did a triple by swimming the 200 back, the 200 breast and the 200 fly," explained DeSelm. "We scratched her from the back tonight. But she still swam the back-to-back double in the breast and fly. She swam a tremendous 200 breast. She had to swim a great time in order to beat her own teammate, Alison Clemens, who had a great race. Not long after that Laura came back and almost won the 200 fly."

In the men's 200-yard breaststroke, Armin Hornikel of the host Gamecocks edged Randy Buchanan of the College of Charleston by one-tenth of a second, winning the event in 2:01.06. UNC's Flynn Jones and Vinny Pryor took the third and fourth places in the event.

Freshman Katie Nolan of the Tar Heels seized the title in the 200-yard butterfly as she wn in 2:02.50, slipping past Liz Bellew of Duke by .16 of a second. Swimming back-to-back events, Laura Moriarty took third place in 2:03.01, just minutes after winning the 200-yard breaststroke.

"Katie Nolan is really developing her 200 fly. It was well-managed race. It was very close at the end but she knows how to come from behind and get the win," said DeSelm.

The 200-yard butterfly was the best race of the night as one one-hundredth of a second separated the top three competitors. Andrew Stoker of East Carolina won the event in 1:49.63, while UNC's Jason McLaughlin and South Carolina's Michael Flach tied for second in 1:49.64. The Tar Heels showed incredible depth in the event with freshman Tommy Luchsinger, junior Robert Grimmett-Norris and junior Vinny Pryor taking fourth, fifth and sixth.

The Carolina divers continued to perform well. On the women's side, Chay Malvasio and Jenna Moore finished third and fifth, respectively in the three-meter event.

On the men's side, the Tar Heels took four of the top six places in one-meter diving, led by redshirt sophomore David MacDonald's victory. MacDonald's 367.45 points were a school record score and he finished 15.9 points ahead of second place Rylan Ridenour of USC. Freshman Jake Kinzbach of UNC took third place while seniors Austin Bradyhouse and David Solarz were fifth and sixth, respectively.

The South Carolina women ended their home meet in style by winning the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:24.59 while UNC took second place in 3:25.81.

The UNC men went under the three-minute mark to capture the 400-yard freestyle relay, winning the event by 3.32 seconds over second-place USC. Evan Reed (45.08 leadoff split), Tommy Wyher (44.76), Hank Browning (45.40) and Steve Cebertowicz (44.60) comprised the winning relay with a time of 2:59.84.

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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