Gamecock Swimmers Set Several PRs at VT Invitational

Blacksburg, Va. – South Carolina’s swimmers set 17 new personal best times this weekend at the Virginia Tech Invitational. The Gamecock squad completed the event with five top-3 finishes.

The women’s team was highlighted by freshman Sterling Burd who set a new personal best time in each event that she competed in. She began competition on Friday with the 500 free where she set a new PR in the prelims, swimming a 4:58.09. On Saturday, Burd went on to set another PR in the 200 free with a 1:51.73p. She then followed it up with a time trial PR in the 100 fly of 55.98. Burd closed out the competition with a 200 fly PR, swimming a 2:00.69 for third place, her highest placed finish of the competition.

Another strong performer for the women’s team was freshman Jill Smiley who set three new PR’s at the invitational. She set new personal best times in both the 100 and 200 fly and established a personal best in the 200 IM that she competed for the first time, swimming a 2:11.72p.

Other notable performances at the invitational came from sophomore Cory Shanks who placed second in the 100 fly with a new PR of 54.88p, and freshman Carolina Kudela who placed second in the 100 breast with a new PR of 1:03.21.

Additional top-3 finishes came from freshman Megan Maholic who placed second in the 100 back, and junior Alicia Davie who placed third in the 1650 free.

On the men’s side, freshman Jack Carman set new PR’s in all three of his events, starting with a 1:55.49 in the 200 IM. He then PR’ed in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke events with times of 55.39 and 2:03.86 respectively.

The South Carolina swimming & diving team will compete next at the SEC Championships in College Station, Texas, Feb. 14-18. More information on the SEC Championships, including schedule and streaming links can be found here.

For all the latest South Carolina swimming and diving information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockSwim).