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March 28, 2009

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Nicholas Walkotten made the most of his final swim as a South Carolina Gamecock as he smashed his own school record yet again in finishing sixth in the 200-yard butterfly at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Texas A&M University. The senior became the first Gamecock to earn two All-America certificates at one NCAA Championship since 2004.

“He swam great,” head coach McGee Moody said. “He fixed the things we needed to fix for tonight. It was perfect. He’s 12 one-hundredths out of being fourth. Even on his best night, I’m not sure he matches (Georgia’s Mark) Dylla and (Florida’s Shaune) Fraser, but he was perfect tonight. We’re excited about the way everything went and that he got to be in the big show. He beat some really great athletes, some Olympians. Just a great performance.”

Walkotten turned in a time of 1:42.48, a scant four-hundredths out of fifth place behind Auburn’s Tyler McGill. Fraser and Dylla both broke the existing NCAA record in finishing 1-2 in the event with Fraser out-touching Dylla by a tenth of a second in 1:40.75. The senior from Hudsonville, Mich., became South Carolina’s first All-American in the 200 butterfly since Zsolt Gaspar turned in top-16 finishes in 2000 and 2001. The last Gamecock swimmer to earn multiple All-America certificates in one championship since Istvan Bathazi pulled off the feat in the 200 and 400 IM events in 2004.

The senior qualified eighth in the afternoon’s preliminaries with a time of 1:42.73, which smashed his previous personal best of 1:43.55 from the SEC Championships in February.

Also competing on the final day was fellow senior Kyle Cormier. He turned in a time of 43.33 in the 100 freestyle to finish 31st in his final collegiate competition.

With Walkotten’s combined 15 points from a sixth-place finish in the 200 fly and a 15th-place showing in the 100 fly, South Carolina finished tied for 29th in the team standings. It was the best showing for South Carolina since the 2004-05 season when the Gamecocks finished 26th on the strength of Andy Bradley’s sixth-place finish in three-meter diving.

Auburn won its fifth NCAA Championship in six years, retaking the title after Arizona ended their four-year streak last season. The Tigers finished with 526 points, ahead of second-place Texas with 487. Florida was fifth, Tennessee was eighth and Georgia was 10th, giving the SEC four of the top 10 teams. Kentucky finished 17th, Alabama was 21st and LSU was 28th.

The intercollegiate season has come to a close, but numerous South Carolina swimmers and divers continue to train for various events taking place throughout the summer. The next major event is the Ultraswim event in Charlotte, N.C., which runs May 14-17.