Men's swim squad two wins from perfect season
On Saturday, the No. 22 Gamecocks have a shot to accomplish such a feat as they race for history, as well as respect.
The team is currently 9-0 going into the last meet of the regular season, where they will host No. 9 Georgia and No. 16 Alabama. A win over either team will match the program's record for wins in a season, set in 1966. Wins over both will mean perfection.
Last year, before the same meet, South Carolina was snubbed in a press release on USA Swimming's official website. The release only talked about Alabama and Georgia competing against one another, with no mention of South Carolina.
Ryan Connolly, a junior and one of the captains of the men's squad, said that gave the team extra motivation for this season.
"We didn't even get a mention," Connolly said. "They said it's a meet between Alabama and Georgia. Now [we're] noticed. We have a target on our back now that we're ranked, and everybody knows about us."
USC coach McGee Moody agreed and said the meet is getting a lot of attention this season because it is a showdown among three top-25 teams.
"Some of our guys took offense to that. We've won a lot of races this year, and now the shoe's kind of on the other foot," Moody said. "This is one of the marquee meets in the entire country this week in terms of competition. We have an opportunity to make a big jump this week in terms of the national scene, and it is not a situation where people will be looking over South Carolina anymore."
Connolly said the team is excited at the chance to make history at South Carolina.
"It's just awesome to be in a position to be on a team that is going for history and swimming in a meet that means so much to us," Connolly said. "I know [Moody] has dreams of winning an SEC championship. I'm not sure it that'll happen this year or next, but I think he's well on his way to doing that. So it'll be cool to see in a few years that I was a building block to get us into that position," Connolly said.
Moody said his team is almost identical to Alabama, and they match up in nearly every event.
"If you look at the event where we are our strongest, we've got Michael Flach in the 500 [meter freestyle]. They've got guys [who] can go stroke for stroke with him," Moody said. "We've got to be on top of our races and be able to finish. We definitely have our work cut out for us, but it's not out of the realm of what this group is capable of doing."
The meet begins tomorrow at noon at the Carolina Natatorium, located inside the Blatt P.E. Center.