Gamecocks Ready for NCAA Championships
March 21, 2017
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The University of South Carolina Swimming & Diving team heads back to Indianapolis, Ind., and the IU Natatorium for the 2017 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships. The season-ending event begins Wednesday, March 22, and concludes on Saturday, March 25.
Ten Gamecocks will represent the team as South Carolina takes aim at national championships and All-America honors. The lone event on Wednesday night is the 800-yard freestyle relay, where Cody Bekemeyer, Akram Mahmoud, Fynn Miunth and Tom Peribonio will be in the pool. Individual events start Thursday, with Minuth, Mahmoud and Peribonio racing in the 500-yard freestyle and Nils Wich-Glasen in the 200 IM. On Friday, Peribonio and Bekemeyer swim the 400-yard IM, Minuth and Mahmoud take part in the 200-yard freestyle and Wich-Glasen participates in the 100-yard breaststroke. Carolina will also have Caleb Tosh, Jonathan Boland, Patrick McCrillis and Wich-Glasen swimming in the 200-yard medley relay. Saturday features Mahmoud, Bekemeyer and Peribonio in the 1650-yard freestyle, Wich-Glasen in the 200-yard breaststroke, Minuth in the 200-yard butterfly and Gotro on the platform.
Mahmoud enters the NCAAs as one of South Carolina’s best hope for its first national champion, as the junior sports the nation’s eighth-fastest time in the 1650 free after winning the same race at the SEC Championships on February 18. He finished second in the 1650 free at NCAAs last year. But he’s not the only Gamecock who could do big things in Indianapolis. Minuth owns the third-best time in the 500 free and Wich-Glasen hold the fourth-fastest time in the 200 breast and eighth-best time in the 100-breast.
Swimming prelims begin each day at 10 a.m., while diving prelims start at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 12:15 p.m. on Saturday. The diving consolation finals begin 15 minutes after the conclusion of diving prelims, while swimming and diving finals start at 6 p.m. each day.
Updated schedules, psych sheets, live results and live video links can be found by visiting the Tournament Central page at IndianaSportsCorp.org. ESPN3.com will stream the championships finals sessions live on Friday and Saturday. Wednesday’s evening session, Thursday’s sessions along with the morning sessions on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live on NCAA.com and IndianaSportsCorp.org/ncaasd. Additionally, ESPNU will air a two-hour broadcast via tape delay at 7 p.m. EST, Tuesday, March 28. Live results for the championships will be available on NCAA.com.
GAMECOCK HISTORY AT THE NCAA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
Five of the ten Gamecocks competing this week have already earned All-America laurels in their NCAA Championships careers. Mahmoud, Minuth and Peribonio were on the 800 free relay team that finished 15th last season at NCAAs. Mahmoud finished second in the 1650 free last season and fourth in the 500 free. Peribonio took sixth in the 1650 free, 13th in the 500 free and 16th in the 400 IM. Wich-Glasen placed seventh in the 100 breast and Gotro came in 12th place on the platform.
In total, 52 different Gamecocks have combined to win 150 All-America awards. Gary Binfield (1986-89) is Carolina’s all-time leader with 15 All-America finishes, and teammate Wade King (1986-89) had 12. On the diving side, Brandon Hulko (2000-02) and Andy Bradley (2003-05) are Carolina’s all-time leaders with four All-America honors each.
A LOOK BACK
Mahmoud qualified for the NCAA Championships by swimming NCAA an A-Cut time in the 1650 free at the SEC Championships, which included his conference championship performance in the mile. Wich-Glasen recorded an A-cut time in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststrokes and Minuth also swam an A-cut time in the 500 free.
Gotro earned his way to NCAAs with his score of 643.15 on the platform at the NCAA Zone B Diving Championships from March 6-8.
GAMECOCKS EARN ALL-AMERICA SPOTS AT NCAA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
South Carolina finished with two All-Americans at the NCAA Women’s Championships, held March 15-18. Sophomore Emma Barksdale finished 13th in the 400 IM, while Allyson Nied came in 13th on the platform.
SWIMMERS EXCEL AT SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Gamecocks notched six swimming podium spots at the SEC Championships, and they combined to break 11 swimming school records. Leading the way was Wich-Glasen and Minuth, who each reached the podium twice. Wich-Glasen took second in both the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard breaststroke, while Minuth won first place in the 500 free and bronze in the 200 free. Mahmoud won the 1650 free for the second consecutive year and Bekemeyer joined him on the podium, placing third.
