Equestrian, swim, dive teams release fall schedules
Ray Tanner has pulled off his own personal repeat.
In the wake of South Carolina’s second consecutive College World Series championship, Tanner has been named Collegiate Baseball’s National Coach of the Year for the second time in as many years and the third time in his career.
Under Tanner, the Gamecocks have won 16 straight NCAA postseason games and 11 consecutive College World Series contests. Both marks are all-time records.
All-CWS team full of Gamecocks:
Robert Beary, Christian Walker, Scott Wingo (who was named the CWS Most Outstanding Player as well), Brady Thomas, Peter Mooney, Michael Roth and Matt Price were all voted to the team by media.
Joining the seven Gamecocks on the team were Florida’s Cody Dent and Bryson Smith, along with Vanderbilt’s Connor Harrell and Tony Kemp, giving the team an all-SEC theme.
Equestrian releases schedule: The USC equestrian team will have six of its 13 meets this season at One Wood Farm in Blythewood, coach Boo Major announced this week.
“We have put together a strong schedule for 2011-12,” said Major in a release. “We’ll compete twice against Auburn and Georgia like we do each season, and we have added some strong teams for both home and away meets.”
The Gamecocks will open the season at home on Sept. 23 against Fresno State, followed by a home date with TCU a week later. October will be dominated by road trips to SMU, Auburn and New Mexico State before the team returns home for its final meet of the fall semester, a Nov. 4 collision with rival Georgia.
Schedule also out for swim, dive teams: A historic final meeting with Clemson, which is discontinuing its swimming and diving programs after this upcoming season, highlights the 2011-12 slates for the Gamecock swim and dive squads.
“We have the opportunity to take another huge step forward this season as a program,” said coach McGee Moody in a release. “We have a very tough schedule for the 2011-12 season. We are going to have to be at our best week in and week out. Our athletes are always up for the challenge. We are looking for another great season.”
The USC men, who went 10-1 last season, and the women, who posted a 7-6 record, open up in Tallahassee, Fla., on Oct. 15 with a dual meet against Florida State and Alabama, before coming home on Oct. 22 to face Georgia Tech. An Oct. 29 trip to Death Valley to face the Tigers and a Nov. 5 home meet against Tennessee follow, before the teams wrap up the fall portion of their schedules at the Nike Cup Invitational in Chapel Hill, N.C., from Nov. 17 to 19.
SEC spring honor roll released: For the fifth time in six instances, South Carolina led the SEC with a league-high 116 athletes on the conference’s spring academic honor roll, which requires a cumulative 3.0 GPA from the 2010 summer, 2010 fall and 2011 spring terms in order to be eligible.
The leading USC programs were women’s track and field (31 honorees), equestrian (22), men’s track and field (18) and the two-time defending national championship baseball team, which had 16 members on the list.