Harnish, Carter Triple Up As Georgia Sweeps South Carolina

Georgia vs South Carolina

  • Saturday, November 3, 2018
  • Athens, Georgia
  • Gabrielsen Natatorium
  • Live Results
  • Full Results (PDF)
  • Women’s Score: Georgia 171, South Carolina 124
  • Men’s Score: Georgia 178, South Carolina 111

The University of Georgia men and women cruised to a pair of dual meet wins over South Carolina at home on Saturday, giving the men their first win of the season after losing to Florida last weekend (now 1-1), and the women improving to 2-1 after beating Arkansas and losing to Florida in October.

Both teams won by comfortable margins, with the men topping the Gamecocks 178-111 and the Lady Bulldogs winning 171-124.

Women’s Meet

The Georgia women were spearheaded by sophomore Courtney Harnish and freshman Olivia Carter who won three events each. The Bulldogs were once again notably without Eva Merrell, who has yet to compete in what was expected to be her freshman year. Per the school, they have no update on whether or not Merrell is redshirting the season.

Just like she did last weekend against Florida, Harnish swept the 200, 500 and 1000 freestyles, including taking the 1000 and 200 in back-to-back events. She won the 1000 in 9:50.06 over freshman teammate Maddie Homovich (9:57.34), improving her season-best by close to three seconds and putting her 5th in the nation, and she also dipped under her 200 free season-best to win in 1:46.96. UGA junior Jordan Stout was the runner-up in 1:48.93.

Later on in the meet she posted her fastest time of the season once again to win the 500 in 4:46.70, moving into 5th in the country there as well. Stout (4:53.88) was 2nd in what was a 1-2-3-4 finish for the Bulldogs.

The freshman Carter won the 100 fly (53.67) narrowly over South Carolina’s Christina Lappin (53.81), the 200 fly (1:56.38) over teammate Dakota Luther (1:57.61), and the 200 IM (2:01.11) over South Carolina’s Hallie Kinsey (2:02.71). Her time in the 200 fly was just .08 off of her season-best from the Florida dual which ranks her 4th in the NCAA. Luther, who won the 200 fly at that meet in 1:56.08, sits 3rd in the country.

Georgia also had another freshman, Callie Dickinson, put up some big points with a pair of wins in the backstroke events, winning the 100 in 55.30 over first year teammates Portia Brown (55.41) and Caroline Aikins (55.47), and taking the 200 in 1:58.16 over Homovich (1:59.02), Aikins (1:59.78) and Brown (2:01.00). They outscored the Gamecocks by the maximum margin of 16-3 in both backstroke events.

Also winning for Georgia was junior Veronica Burchill in the 100 free (49.51) over Bulldog freshman Gabi Fa’amausili (50.40), and those two placed 2nd and 3rd in the 50 free in times of 23.14 and 23.19 respectively behind South Carolina’s Lappin (22.85).

In addition to Lappin’s win, senior Emma Barksdale swept the breaststroke events for the Gamecocks with swims of 1:01.84 and 2:14.00 in the 100 and 200 respectively, with UGA sophomore Danielle Della Torre the runner-up in both (1:02.14, 2:14.58). Karlee Price also swept the diving events for South Carolina.

In the relays, Fa’amausili (25.51), Della Torre (28.46), Luther (24.19) and Burchill (22.50) won the 200 medley at the beginning of the session in 1:40.66 over South Carolina’s 1:42.07, who had the top anchor from Lappin in 22.42.

In the 400 free relay the team of Fa’amausili (50.55), Harnish (50.71), Maddie Wallis (50.78) and Burchill (48.96) went 3:21.00 to easily beat out South Carolina’s 3:24.07. The Gamecocks’ top leg came from Lappin, who swam 2nd with a 50.12 split. It’s worth pointing out that Georgia’s swims in both the 200 IM and 400 free relay were scored as exhibition.

Men’s Meet

The UGA men, who were once again without Javier Acevedo as he recovers from injury, won all but three events for the meet, led by four swimmers who won two events each.

Senior James Guest won the 100 (54.65) and 200 breaststroke (1:58.58) events, edging South Carolina’s Lionel Khoo (54.73) in the former and leading a 1-2 with teammate Jack Dalmolin (2:01.88) in the latter. He was also the runner-up in the 200 IM in 1:50.18 behind freshman Andrew Abruzzo (1:48.53), while Dalmolin was 3rd in 1:50.67.

Abruzzo also won the 200 back (1:45.56), and took 2nd to teammate Greg Reed (9:00.22) in the 1000 free in a time of 9:01.62. Reed currently ranks 4th in the nation in a time of 8:59.13, while Abruzzo’s swim improved his season-best of 9:03.54 and put him 6th in the country.

Also winning a pair of events for the Bulldogs was sophomore Camden Murphy in the 100 (47.28) and 200 fly (1:46.73), and senior Alex Bemiller in the 50 (21.00) and 100 free (45.25). Murphy’s 100 fly performance improved his season-best of 48.04 and moved him up into 6th in the NCAA. The 200 fly and 50 free were particularly dominant events for the Georgia men, outscoring the Gamecocks 16-3 in both.

Also winning for the Bulldogs were juniors Walker Higgins in the 200 free (1:37.55) and Kevin Miller in the 500 free (4:26.90).

Anton Jenkins swept the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events for South Carolina, and their other event win came from junior Kevin Liu in the 100 back (49.54) over UGA sophomore Youssef Said (49.70).

The 200 medley team of Said, Guest, Murphy and Bemiller won the meet opening relay in a time of 1:29.11 over South Carolina’s 1:30.32, with Guest (24.38) and Murphy (21.41) producing the fastest splits in the field on breast and fly. Caleb Tosh had the top backstroke leg for South Carolina in 22.97, and Billy Rothery‘s 20.06 anchor for Georgia’s ‘B’ squad was the fastest freestyle split.

The Bulldogs finished the meet off by posting the three fastest times in the 400 free relay (though they were scored as exhibition), with the ‘A’ team of Murphy (45.17), Said (45.49), Bemiller (45.81) and Higgins (45.46) winning in 3:01.93. Swimming on their ‘C’ team, Riley Colin had the 2nd fastest flying split behind Higgins in 45.47.

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FlyGirl
5 years ago

Olivia would have won 200 IM – she swam that event exhibition….

canswim1331
5 years ago

I am becoming more and more intrigued in the status of Eva Merrell. Hope she can compete this season !

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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