Gamecocks Close NCAAs with Three More All-America Performances
March 24, 2018
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. –
Akram Mahmoud became just the third swimmer in school history to garner four straight All-America honors in a single event as South Carolina tallied three more All-America performances on the final day of the 2018 NCAA Championships, finishing in 17th-place overall in the final team standings.
Senior Nils Wich-Glasen also put up a third-consecutive All-America performance in the 200 breaststroke to close out his college career, while Fynn Minuth fell just shy of his own school record on the way to finishing 13th overall in the 200 fly.
DAY 4 RECAP
Mahmoud wrapped up his college career with a 14:41.58 in the final heat of the 1650 freestyle to finish in ninth-place overall. The ninth-place performance was the tenth career top-16 finish at the NCAA Championships for Mahmoud in his four-year career at South Carolina.
Itay Goldfaden continued to reach new heights on day four, setting a personal best time for a third-straight race with a 1:57.88 in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Senior Nils Wich-Glasen extended his college career by one more race, qualifying for the B final of the 200 breast with a 1:53.28 during prelims. Wich-Glasen then finished off his third career All-America performance in the 200 breast with a 1:54.26 in the finals.
Fynn Minuth came within a second of his school-record time, moving into the B final of the 200 fly with a 1:41.74 time in prelims. Minuth fell less than 0.1 second off his pace from prelims following up with a 1:41.81 in the B final to finish with All-America honors in the 200 fly for a second straight season.
QUOTABLE
“They helped put our program on the map and bring it back to the top 25. I can’t thank those guys enough. It’s hard enough to be an All-American in one year, and Tom Peribonio’s been an All-American all four years that he was here. Akram Mahmoud is one of the fastest distance swimmers on the planet, and he’s got much bigger swimming still ahead of him. He still has lofty goals for 2020 (Olympic Games), and he wants to be an Olympic Gold Medalist. Our job as a coaching staff at South Carolina is to provide him with that environment to get there. We still have a lot to accomplish with this senior class that is graduating, but we’re going to miss them from a leadership standpoint. We’ve got younger guys that have really bought into the culture that they helped to develop.”-On the impact of this year’s senior class
“We’ve got to take these guys’ success in the direction they’ve gone, and we’ve got to bring in guys that will help strengthen the dynamic that we’ve laid in place. We’ve established ourselves as one of the better distance programs in the nation, and we’ve got to follow suit and continue to develop our speed and our relays. If we do that, I think we’ll be a consistent top-10 team. We’re headed in the right direction; we just have to keep working.”- On how this program takes the next step moving forward
“My takeaway from the week is that we have a great group of men. I’m proud of them as athletes, but I’m even more proud of them as men. For the guys that are coming back, we’ve got big things ahead of us and for the guys that are graduating, I can’t say thank you enough.”- On final takeaways from the week
— HEAD SWIMMING COACH MCGEE MOODY-
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS RECAP
The Gamecocks opened the 2018 NCAA Championships on Wednesday night with a 6:17.27 in the 4X200 free relay, just 1.03 seconds off their season best pace from the SEC Championships.
South Carolina then picked up individual points from a pair of All-America performances on day two as Akram Mahmoud won his morning heat and later placed fourth overall in the 500 free in addition Fynn Minuth making it into the 500 B final.
It was the young Gamecocks that helped South Carolina maintain its overall team position on the third day of competition as freshman Brandon Almeida captured fourth-place overall in the 400 IM in addition to Tom Peribonio placing into the 400 IM B final. Sophomore Itay Goldfaden set a personal record in the prelims of the 100 breast and later set another PR with a 52.36 in the event’s B final.
Mahmoud capped off a brilliant college career on the final day of competition with his fourth-straight All-America performance in the 1650. Nils Wich-Glasen followed by closing out his career with a third-straight top-16 finish in the 200 breast, finishing with a 1:54.26 in the B final. Fynn Minuth then fell less than 0.1 second shy of his own school-record pace in the 200 butterfly to conclude the NCAA Championships for South Carolina.
The Gamecocks finished the week 17th in the overall team rankings with 60 total team points.
For updates, follow South Carolina Swimming and Diving on Twitter at @GamecockSwim.
