NASHVILLE, Tenn. — After taking part in three dual meets, the Vanderbilt swimming program will end the fall season at the Gamecock Invitational which begins Wednesday and will include competition over three days.
Ellie Taliaferro enters the final meet of the semester with the Commodores’ top time in four different events—the 100, 200 and 500 freestyle as well as the 200 IM—while Kailia Utley has recorded the team’s best marks in both the 100 and 200 butterfly. Faith Knelson and Taylor Carey lead Vandy’s top performer list in the 100 and 200 breaststroke, respectively, and Megan Ciezczak has the team’s fastest time in the 50 free.
But the Dores have also received immediate contributions from multiple newcomers this fall, with graduate transfer Sophia Kosturos pacing the team in the 100 backstroke and freshmen Grace Ciaramitaro (200 back), Liv Gooding (400 IM) and Madelyn Porter (1,000 free) posting Vanderbilt’s fastest times in their events.
“This will give us a good opportunity to go through a dry run, if you will, for how the prelim-finals format works, especially for the new individuals in the program,” head coach Jeremy Organ said. “It will be good preparation for SECs, you have to be able to get up and swim fast in the morning to get yourself in position to score points at night. Obviously, a key will be executing races the way we want to, but I think we are in a good spot to possibly set some new standards from a team standpoint and put some times up that will put us in a really good spot in order to move up in the SEC.”
This marks the second straight year that the Commodores will compete at the Gamecock Invitational after finishing third in a field of seven teams at the event in 2023. Other schools taking part in the meet at the USC Natatorium this week—in addition to the hosts—are Gardner-Webb, Georgia Southern, Milligan, UNC Wilmington, North Florida and Tampa.
Taliaferro and Utley earned multiple victories in finals at last year’s Gamecock Invitational, with Kendall Hall, Knelson, Gabriela Pierobon Mays and Ella Platek also winning finals races as well.
Prelims are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. CT each of the three days of the competition, with finals taking place starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday.