South Carolina vs Georgia
- October 8th, 2025
- Columbia, South Carolina
- SCY (25 Yards)
- Full Meet Results
- Team Scores
- Women: South Carolina 157 — 141 Georgia
- Men: Georgia 218 — 76 South Carolina
The South Carolina Gamecocks and the Georgia Bulldogs swam a dual meet on Wednesday afternoon, and the South Carolina women came out on top for the first time since 1985 while Georgia freshman Kennedi Dobson had a monster meet.
The Georgia men improved their record to 2 – 0 in a comfortable victory over the Gamecocks without top swimmer Luca Urlando.
Women’s Meet Recap:
Despite South Carolina’s win, Georgia freshman Kennedi Dobson was the top swimmer of the women’s meet, setting three new personal best times in her Georgia debut.
She started with an event win in the women’s 1000 freestyle, swimming 9:29.94 to come in more than 10 seconds ahead of South Carolina’s Nora Fluck, who touched in 9:43.81. Her previous best time in the event stood at 9:33.20 from last December.
With only the men’s 1000 in between, Dobson turned around one of the hardest doubles in college dual meets to set a new personal best in the women’s 200 freestyle. Her time of 1:43.40 was more than a second-and-a-half ahead of 2nd place finisher Amy Riordan from South Carolina who touched in 1:45.04.
This swim was also more than half-a-second faster than her previous best of 1:44.07, which she swam to win the US Open last December. It also is under the NCAA standard of 1:45.53 and under last season’s invite time of 1:44.74, and it would have been 12th at last year’s NCAA Championships.
Dobson finished her individual events with a win in the women’s 500 freestyle in yet another new personal best. She won the event by more than nine seconds, swimming 4:36.22 to drop half-a-second from the 4:36.87 mark she set last December at the US Open.
Again, this swim is under last season’s NCAA cutline in the event and it would have been 6th at the Championships.
She also participated on Georgia’s winning 400 freestyle relay, making her perfect in her Bulldog debut. She led off the relay in 48.96, which was just four hundredths off her best of 48.92 from last December. Dobson was joined by Shea Furse (50.37), Marie Landreneau (49.05), and Emma Norton (48.72) who came behind her to finish the relay off in 3:17.10, almost a second ahead of the South Carolina ‘A’ relay.
Georgia also won the 200 medley relay in 1:39.18 with Katie Bell Sikes (25.12), Charlotte Headland (27.43), Olivia Dellatorre (24.04), and Marie Landreneau (22.59).
Headland went on to win the 100 breast in 1:00.94 and finish 2nd in the 200 breast in 2:11.43. Both swims were new personal bests for her improving from the 1:01.39 and 2:13.10 she set in November of last year.
Landreneau, Norton, and Ieva Maluka were Georgia’s other event winners with Landreneau taking the 100 free in 49.55, Norton winning the 100 fly in 53.42, and Maluka winning the 200 IM in 1:56.90.
South Carolina ended up winning the meet in large part due to their diving. On the 1-meter, the divers went 1-2-4 with Sophie Verzyl winning with her score of 323.10, and on the 3-meter they were 1-2-3, again with Verzyl winning at 395.78.
Katie Buehler won the women’s 100 back in 54.10, just three hundredths ahead of teammate Megan Maholic‘s 54.13. This was a new best time by five-hundredths for Buehler, whose previous best was 54.15 from February.
South Carolina won all three 200s of stroke with Jordan Agliano winning the 200 fly in 1:56.68, Amy Riordan winning the 200 backstroke in 1:53.95, and Delaney Franklin winning the 200 breaststroke in 2:10.81.
Men’s Meet Recap
The Georgia men were missing their top swimmer in Luca Urlando, but they still won the meet easily scoring 218 points to South Carolina’s 76 by winning every single event of the meet.
They started with a win in the 200 medley relay with the team of Sam Powe (21.77), Elliot Woodburn (23.51), Ruard van Renen (20.33), and Tane Bidois (19.26) touching in 1:24.87 to come out more than half-a-second ahead of South Carolina’s time of 1:25.44
Tomas Koski swam the same lineup as Dobson, winning all three of his individual events as well. He started with a win in the 1000, touching in 8:56.95, about seven seconds off his best of 8:49.54 from the opening 1000 of his mile in March.
He went on to win the 200 free (1:34.55) and 500 free (4:17.91) before swimming the 2nd leg on the 400 freestyle relay, splitting 42.68.
Koski swam behind Tane Bidois, who led off in 44.27. Luke Sandberg went 3rd, swimming 43.51, and Roman Valdez anchored in 44.05 to bring the team home in 2:54.51 for the win.
Ruard van Renen won two individual events, the 100 back (45.10), and the 100 free (43.23), and he finished 2nd in the 100 fly to Drew Hitchcock, touching in 46.02 to Hitchcock’s 45.95.
Hitchcock also won the 200 fly (1:41.36), and the 200 IM (1:44.98) for the Bulldogs.
Elliot Woodburn (100 breast- 52.72), Tane Bidois (50 free- 20.05), Sam Powe (200 back- 1:42.20), and Cale Martter (200 breast- 1:56.85) rounded out the event wins for the Georgia team.
Georgia is back in action this weekend at the World Aquatics World Cup, and the South Carolina women will swim Saturday against Arkansas. The South Carolina men race again on Halloween vs Florida State.
baffling, bizarre title and lead picture for an article. gigantic win for USC after a 40 year drought. yes, Dobson was great but please stop making excuses for UGA. Jeff Poppell (and all USC assistant coaches) have made steady, incremental program improvements since 2021. looking forward to SECs.
Trivia:
UGA men’s medley relay is made up of 4 different countries and their native tongue is English. American-British-South African-Australia.
That’s good trivia!
I was surprised by the women’s result just based on the history, but it’s an October meet. It can be a crapshoot with the different training cycles. South Carolina made a statement (men’s and women’s), and their fan base has a lot to be excited about.
UGA’s top sprinter Helena Jones didn’t swim. Georgia still had a lot of bright spots, despite the final results. Dobson swam lights out. It will be great if she’s able to swim down to the 400 FR relay for championship season. I could see her and Landreneau both splitting 47s this year. Headland had a stellar meet, and will be fun to watch her battle for the A relay spot with freshman Nawrocki. UGA… Read more »
I wasn’t upset about the point total after I saw the results. Lots of bright spots and great swims for a very young team. Idk why Jones wasn’t there. And great meet for SC!
Dawgs in the dawghouse after this one
Madeline’s a Georgia fan.
Oh makes a lot of sense.
Everyone whining about diving….only represents 2 of the16 events…
Also, SC split their 200 MR to start the meet and got touched out. Fastest 2 legs from each relay would have won the event by a second.
Give SC some credit. They won by 16 and it could have been an even larger point margin.
Yeah the SC women certainly aren’t bad. Weren’t they 5th at SECs last year?
Yeah they’ve really been taking a holistic approach to rebuilding. Bringing in some impact transfers, some impact divers, some internationals, and every year they hit 1-2 really good American recruits (especially this season with Tori Abruzzo and Molly Yacoviello). It’s really a blueprint on how to build a sustainable program as a non-traditional swimming power. Not going too far into any one bucket, but trying to pull little pieces together from each group into something that has a breakthrough moment – like this – and then build off that.
They’ve already hit a good start on 2027 recruiting in terms of numbers, but are still waiting for those stars. This should help.
Absolute disgrace for the DOGS. NO EXCUSE. Diving scored points for USC, but the swimmers won the meet. NO EXCUSE.
DIVING MATTERED!