Gamecocks Close NCAA Championships with Three All-America Performers
Emma Barksdale,Albury Higgs and Marissa Roth each earned All-America honors on the final night of the NCAA Championships.
AUSTIN, Texas- South Carolina finished the week with three student-athletes earning All-America honors on the final night of the 2019 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Barksdale closes her career with A-final swims in each of her three individual events: 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 breaststroke.
Barksdale set a new program record in prelims of the 200 IM, clocking a 2:07.71 to qualify for the A-final in fifth. Albury Higgs fell less than one tenth of a second shy of qualifying for the A-final, finishing prelims in ninth at 2:08.44.
Emily Cornell finished her meet with a 1:55.63 in the 200 backstroke, the first event of the day. Ture freshmen Melinda Novoszath (1:57.68) and Hallie Kinsey (2:00.30) each completed their first season of college swimming in the 200 butterfly.
Marissa Roth followed up her SEC Championship in the platform competition with an 11th-place finish scoring a total of 256.00 in prelims and 262.80 in the B-final. Mikaela Lujan just missed qualification for the consolation final with a 244.25 over her five prelim dives.
South Carolina finishes the meet 21st in the team standings, fewer than ten points outside of back-to-back top-20 finishes.
QUOTEABLE- Head Diving Coach Todd Sherritt
“This was certainly an interesting NCAA’s. It was one of those meets where we just had to keep slugging until we broke through which we did on the platform. Mikaela Lujan was diving all three events, which is extremely difficult to do. She came back today and had a strong finish on the tower. Marissa Roth had an outstanding meet. Coming off of her conference championship, she carried that momentum into this meet and did not miss one dive on the platform today. She did two lists, every dive went straight up and down and she ended up 11th in the nation– the highest ever in the platform at South Carolina. It was a long week that ended on a very high note.”
UP NEXT
The NCAA Championships will continue with the men’s championships, which are scheduled to begin on Wednesday night with the 800 free relay at 6 p.m. ET.
