Amy Riordan Sets Arkansas Pool Record in South Carolina Win
Amy Riordan set an Arkansas Natatorium record in the women’s 100 backstroke to lead the Gamecocks to a 182-118 victory.
Riordan went 52.41 to win the event by nearly two seconds, part of a 1-2-3 with teammate Megan Maholic and Katie Buehler. Riordan also finished second in the 100 freestyle and led off the Gamecocks’ 200 medley relay victory. Her split of 24.91 helped the team of Elizabeth Goodwin-Birnie, Taylor Grimley and Dylan Scholes go 1:39.42 to edge Arkansas by .57 seconds.
Nora Fluck won the 1,000 free by .04 seconds off teammate Breckin Gormley in a tone-setting 1-2 early in the meet. Fluck led Gormley by .09 seconds in the 500 free, her time of 4:47.93 to get to the wall first.
Goodwin-Birnie went 1:02.09 to win the 100 breaststroke by .05 seconds over teammate Delaney Franklin in another podium sweep. Franklin’s time of 2:11.94 led her to a win in the 200 breast, and she went 1:59.84 in the 200 individual medley to lead a 1-2 with Meaghan Harnish.
Freshman Tori Abruzzo picked up her first collegiate victory by going 1:57.49 in the 200 back for South Carolina, and Jordan Agliano’s 1:58.02 edged teammate Molly Yacoviello by .01 to win the 200 butterfly.
Sophie Verzyl provided an expected jolt in diving. Her score of 368.85 points won 3-meter, and she tallied 336.45 to win 1-meter, both tallies needed to hold off the pressure put on by Arkansas’s Maria Sanchez.
Arkansas’s strength was mainly in the sprints. Harriet Rogers went 22.14 to win the 50 freestyle, with teammate Delaney Harrison second in 22.96. Rodgers bested Riordan in the 100 free with a time of 49.66, and she added a third win by topping Grimley by .18 seconds in the 100 fly, clocking in at 53.12.
Viola Petrini went 1:47.52 to win the 200 free and was third in the 100 free. Rogers split 48.89 off the front of the winning 400 free relay, teaming with Harrison, Petrini and Tammy Greenwood to win it in 3:16.49.
