The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Sports

The swim and dive teams are headed to Tuscaloosa and will begin the ending of their season with conference championships through the weekend. (Photo courtesy of USC Media Relations)

The men's and women's swimming and diving teams will travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala. this week to compete in the SEC Swimming and Diving Championship.

Both teams will look to improve on their performances in last year's SEC Championship, where the men's team placed eighth and the women's team placed seventh.

Several Gamecock swimmers have already performed well in Tuscaloosa this season, having competed in the Alabama Classic in the fall. In the Classic, sophomore Dominique Lendjel finished first overall in the men's 200-meter backstroke event with a time of 2:03.08. Freshman Claire Thompson also finished first in the women's 1500-meter freestyle competition with a time of 17:05.07.

The divers also had some success this season, with some of them also having received acclaims in the SEC this year. In January, junior men's diver David Ovelson was named SEC Diver of the Week after winning both the one- and three-meter events against Florida State. In the one-meter event, Ovelson defeated the reigning national champion.

On the women's side, one diver who has momentum heading into the tournament is freshman Taryn Zack after being named SEC Diver of the Week last week. For the second meet in a row she swept both the one- and three-meter diving events, this time in a tri-meet against Georgia and Alabama.

Auburn's men's and women's teams swept the SEC Championships last season and return again this year with strong teams both currently ranked in the top five in the country. The men's and women's teams for Georgia, Florida and Tennessee will all be looking to dethrone Auburn as they all currently have teams ranked in the top 10 in the country.

The SEC Championship will start with events on Wednesday and will continue on all the way through Saturday.

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