Nov. 20, 2015
The South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams held their positions through day two of the three-day Georgia Tech Invitational, which was completed Friday night. The men remain in second place out of 11 teams, while the women are fourth among 16 squads.
First up on in the Friday night finals was the 200-yard medley relay. The women’s unit of Heather Merritt, Kersten Dirrane, Paige Maynard and McKenna Keith turned in a time of 1:43.34 to place seventh, while the men’s quartet of Jonathan Boland, Nils Wich-Glasen, Kevin Leithold and Patrick McCrillis touched the pad in 1:27.33, good for second place.
Both Carolina teams had strong performances in the 400-yard IM. Emma Barksdale took second with a B cut time of 4:11.96, while Megan Carlson was eighth in 4:20.81. The men swept the top three places, all with B cut marks. Tom Peribonio was the top finisher in 3:50.96, and was followed closely by Cody Bekemeyer (3:52.14) and Phillip Willett (3:53.48), earning the squad 71 points.
Top Gamecock finishers in the 100-yard butterfly were Paige Maynard, who placed eighth in 55.07, and Jonathan Boland, who posted a time of 48.43, good for fifth place.
Akaram Mahmoud logged a fourth place finish and a B cut time in the men’s 200-yard freestyle, touching the pad in 1:37.84.
The Gamecocks turned in three more B standard marks in the 100-yard breaststroke. Kersten Dirrane finished fifth in 1:02.34 on the women’s side, while Nils Wich-Glasen (52.63) and Kevin Leithold (54.52), went 2-6 respectively, in the men’s race.
Jonathan Boland turned in a B cut time of 48:06 to finish fourth in the men’s 100-yard backstroke.
In the diving competition on Friday, Julia Vincent followed up her second place performance on the 1-meter board on Thursday with another second place in the 3-meter event. Vincent scored 368.55 points, missing the top spot by just 0.45 points. Jordan Gotro placed seventh in the men’s 1-meter board with 316.15 points.
Friday’s competition wrapped up with the 800-yard freestyle relay. The Gamecock women finished fifth, with Emma Barksdale, Paige Maynard, Ashleigh Ferguson and Heather Merritt finishing in 7:25.24, while the men’s quartet of Kevin Leithold, Akaram Mahmoud, Tom Peribonio and Cody Bekemeyer, touched in 6:31.19, good for third place.
After two days of competition, Arkansas leads the women’s team standings with 749 points. They are followed by Alabama (689.5), Florida Gulf Coast (601) and South Carolina (510). Alabama leads the men’s competition with 904.5 points, while the Gamecocks are second with 752.
The meet concludes on Saturday.
