Men’s swimming opens season with victory over Aggies, loss to Tar Heels
The South Carolina swimming and diving teams competed in their first meet of the season on Saturday as the Gamecocks hosted Texas A&M and North Carolina. The USC men’s team beat the Aggies with a combined score of 160 to 140 but fell to the Tar Heels, 168-132. The women’s team, however, fell to both opponents. Texas A&M outgained South Carolina 190–102 and North Carolina won with a score of 198–99.
The success of the men’s squad was in large part due to Michael Flach, a redshirt junior who posted a particularly impressive day with three different first-place finishes. Flach recorded a 1:50.95 time for the 200-yard individual medley, a personal best. He was named AgSouth Athlete of the Week for his performance.
“I took the last year off for a redshirt to focus on Olympic trials, so there’s a little bit of nerves,” Flach said. “Once I hit the water for that first event, everything just kind of comes back.”
Coach McGee Moody was pleased with the effort the men put forth in Saturday’s meet.
“The men’s side was very driven today; they wanted to win that meet with A&M,” he said. “You scratch and claw with everything you got, you give it your best effort and you see what comes of it.”
For the Gamecocks, it meant a 1-0 start in the SEC as they will now prepare to face the Florida Gators.
“We’ve had success and we can do it again,” Flach said. “And we can race anybody, any day. That’s a good feeling.”
Moody commented on the caliber of the Gamecocks’ first two opponents; the men’s and women’s squads from both Texas A&M and North Carolina finished last year in the top 20.
“Our guys were very good today,” Moody said. “Our women were put in a tough position today because right out of the gate we brought in two top-10 teams.
“Texas A&M is bringing in two girls that were on the U.S. Olympic team in here, one of which, Breeja Larson, broke our pool record by three and a half seconds today.”
Although the women came up short, Moody was encouraged by their overall performance.
“All things said, they swam really well [and] stayed focused,” he said.
Moody stressed that it’s important for the women to not compare themselves to the Olympic athletes that they competed against on Saturday. He said that the team will “continue to fix the things we didn’t do well and continue to improve on the things that we did do well.”
He said the team understands the tall order facing them in Florida.
“We don’t have any time to sit back and pat ourselves on the back for some good races today because Florida, coming in two weeks, is a top-10 program,” he said.
Moody rated Florida’s men’s team as a likely top-five group and suggested that the competition may be even stiffer than what South Carolina faced on Saturday.
“All we look for during this part of the season is just getting a little bit better ... every time so when we get to February and March, we’re sharp and ready to race in championships,” Moody said.