Five Gamecocks To Compete At NCAA Men’s Championships

COLUMBIA, SC March 13, 2013 — Five swimmers will represent South Carolina at the 2013 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships, the NCAA announced Wednesday with the release of the official psych sheet.

Juniors Michael Flach, Alex Fitton, Gerard Rodriguez and Jay Warner and freshman Marwan El Kamash will compete at the championships for the Gamecocks on March 28-30 at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis, Ind.

“We will have five guys attending the men’s championships in two weeks, which is one of the biggest numbers we have ever had at NCAAs,” South Carolina head coach McGee Moody said. “We look to score points in the individual events as well as put up All-America times in the relay events.”

Flach was the only Gamecock invited in the individual events. He will enter the championships as the No. 7 seed in the 500 freestyle (4:15.32), the No. 10 seed in the 200 butterfly (1:43.42) and the No. 19 seed in the 200 freestyle (1:34.93). Flach, who will be going for his third All-America honor in the 500 freestyle, earned silver in the event at the SEC Championships with a school-record time of 4:15.32. He finished fourth in both the 200 freestyle and 200 butterfly at the SEC Championships.

Fitton, Rodriguez, Warner and El Kamash will all be making the trip to Indianapolis to swim the relay events along with Flach. The Gamecocks are eligible to swim in the 200 freestyle, 800 freestyle, 200 medley and 400 medley relays. South Carolina set school records in all four events at the SEC Championships, including a time of 6:23.99 in the 800 freestyle relay that automatically qualified the Gamecocks for the NCAA Championships.

The championships will begin on March 28 with preliminaries at 11 a.m. Finals will be held each night at 7. ESPN3.com will stream the finals on Friday and Saturday.