Gamecocks Open Competition at Georgia Tech Invitational

Nov. 17, 2016

ATLANTA — The South Carolina men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs traveled to Atlanta for a three-day meet at the Georgia Tech Invitational. Both programs posted solid results on the first day, with the men sitting in fourth out of seven teams and the women fifth of 11.

In the 200-yard free-style relay, the women finished sixth with a time of 1:33.26, while the men came in fifth after swimming a time of 1:22.25.

Carolina saw Emma Barksdale and Heather Merritt in the `A’ finals of the 500-yard freestyle, with Barksdale finishing third after a time of 4:45.23 to earn her B cut for the NCAA qualifying standards. Merritt finished seventh with a time of 4:49.43.

The Gamecock men dominated the `A’ finals of the 500-yard free with Fynn Minuth, Akram Mahmoud, Cody Bekemeyer and Tomas Peribonio each earning their B cuts. Minuth led Carolina, coming in second with a time of 4:19.30, followed by Mahmoud in third at 4:19.38 and Bekemeyer in fourth with a time of 4:23.13. Peribonio took eighth after swimming a time of 4:24.65.

Kersten Dirrane earned the highest finish in the 200-yard IM `B’ finals for South Carolina after she finished 17th with a time of 2:02.50. Nils Wich-Glasen led the men in the 200-yard IM `A’ finals finishing seventh with a time of 1:48.46 to earn his B cut for the NCAAs. Jack Smith followed in ninth with a time of 1:49.25, while Bryce Kananowicz finished 10th after swimming a time of 1:50.04.

For the 400-yard medley relays, the women finished fifth after a time of 3:40.03, while the men took fourth with a time of 3:13.09.

On the boards, the Gamecocks enjoyed equal success in the meet’s first day. For the women, Julia Vincent (359.40) finished first overall, Marissa Roth (294.00) placed sixth and Allyson Nied (286.00) took seventh in the 3-meter dive final. The men started out with the 1-meter dive. Jordan Gotro earned first place after posting a mark of 371.70.

South Carolina is back in action tomorrow with prelims beginning at 10 a.m.

QUOTABLE
HEAD COACH McGee Moody
This was a very strong first day for our team! We had some outstanding performances, and I know we can carry this momentum into the next two days. We are in a great team battle, and it is going to be a great indicator to see what our team is made of.

HEAD DIVING COACH Todd Sherritt
Today was great. This team did so many good things in warmups and in the meet. Julia keeps dominating the 3-meter event and had another strong performance. Marissa Roth and Allyson had solid performances. Jordan Gotro had a stunning win on the 1-meter dive. He scored a 372 and performed a reverse 2 1/2 pike. That is the most difficult dive and direction. He only trained for it a few times. We warmed it up, and he put it down in the meet. It was incredible. Overall, I am really pleased so far.

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