Almeida Named SEC Freshman of the Week

Feb. 6, 2018

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Freshman Brandonn Almeida has earned South Carolina’s fourth conference award of the season as this week’s Southeastern Conference Male Freshman of the Week. The Gamecock won two events at the Virginia Tech ‘Technotational’, making NCAA B-cuts in both and recording two top-five times for South Carolina this season.

Almeida got off to an incredible start in his first meet competing for South Carolina, taking home four total first-place finishes at the Virginia Tech Invite. On the first day of competition, he placed first in the 500 freestyle preliminaries, and although he didn’t compete in the finals, his preliminary time of 4:28.72 was the fastest of any time in prelims and A-final.

The freshman came out strong again in day two of the invitational, swimming a B-cut qualifying time (3:53.29) in his 400 IM preliminaries to take first place. He then cut his time by more than a second to win the A-final with a time of 3:51.58, the third fastest 400 IM from the Gamecocks this season.

Almeida finished off a spectacular first collegiate meet with a win in the 1650 freestyle. His time, 15:02.90, was good for the Gamecocks’ second-best time in the event this season and qualifies for a NCAA B-cut.