Swimming and Diving Finish Strong at GT Invitational
Nov. 18, 2017
ATLANTA, Ga. –
South Carolina swimming and diving finished off its final day of competition at the Georgia Tech Invitational on Saturday. The Gamecock men finished fourth, and the women took fifth after the two teams combined for eight individual event wins.
The meet included two Southeastern Conference opponents, Alabama and Auburn, as well as Florida State, East Carolina, Georgia Tech, Campbell and Georgia Southern.
Tomas Peribonio and Emma Barksdale got the team off to a strong start as both swept the 200 and 400 IM events. Fynn Minuth also recorded two wins for the Gamecocks in the 500 freestyle and 200 butterfly. Nils Wich-Glasen was the fourth South Carolina individual winner with a first-place finish in the 100 breaststroke.
The Gamecocks went 1-2 in the men’s 1650 freestyle with senior Akram Mahmoud finishing first with a time of 14:57.88 and Cody Bekemeyer following in second with a time of 15:03.82.
South Carolina was able to take seven top-five spots in relays to help boost its team scores over the course of the three-day meet. The men took third in the 400 medley relay and fourth in the 200 freestyle relay on day one of the competition. They followed up with another third-place finish in the 200 medley relay on Friday. Both the men and women took third in their respective 800 freestyle relays. The Gamecocks finished strong with a fifth-place finish in the women’s 400 freestyle relay and fourth place finish in the men’s 400 freestyle relay.
The women’s diving team competed in the last day of the Ohio State Invitational Saturday as well, with all four Gamecocks making the 1-meter finals. Julia Vincent took first in the event, scoring a 293.45. Karlee Price brought in the next-best score for the Gamecocks with a 277.20 to finish in sixth. Yu Qian Goh and Mikaela Lujan followed right behind in seventh and eighth places, respectively.
QUOTABLE: HEAD SWIMMING COACH McGee Moody
“We had a very strong weekend in Atlanta competing against some of the top teams in the country. We challenged our athletes to put up their best performances of the season during some very difficult training. Different teams prepare for their mid-season meets differently. We chose to train through this time of the season and focus on our championship season in February. Our athletes responded in a big way. We had many life time bests this weekend. I am very proud of their approach to the meet and the way they raced this weekend. Now, we will get our swimmers ready for final exams and set up our training and begin to execute our training plan leading into next semester.”
QUOTABLE: HEAD DIVING COACH Todd Sherritt
“Today went really well. We had four of the eight divers in the finals. Julia Vincent pulled out another win taking both the 1- and 3-meter events. Mikaela did a great job today making up for her 3-meter performance. Our two freshman divers Karlee Price and Yu Qian Goh both had outstanding performances in sixth and seventh tonight. Overall this was a great finish for our springboard divers. Tomorrow is platform, [and the] defending SEC champion Allyson Nied will have some good competition. Mikaela Lujan will be performing some new dives up there, that should be a good event.”
UP NEXT FOR CAROLINA
South Carolina’s next competition will be the USA Swimming Short Course Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, November 29 to December 2.
