The Gamecocks placed 17th in the NCAA Championships in Atlanta from Thursday to Sunday, the highest finish since 1991.
Day one started out strong, with an 800 freestyle relay team of senior Kevin Leithold, sophomores Akaram Mahmoud and Tomas Peribonio, and freshman Fynn Minuth placing 15th overall. The 6:19.93 time was good enough for All-American status and a school record, continuing a four-year streak of All-Americans in the event.
"This was the perfect start for us,” head swim coach McGee Moody said. “We were right where we wanted to be."
The relay swam 6:24 at the SEC Championships, and McGee said he had guessed that the team needed to drop five seconds to 6:19 in order to score.
Thursday saw some high-placing individual performances for South Carolina. Three swimmers placed in the top 40 in the 500 freestyle. Mahmoud was the highest scorer with a fourth-place finish, Peribonio scored 13th place and freshman Cody Bekemeyer rounded out the Gamecocks with a 38th place finish. He and Peribonio earned their second All-American spot of the Championships. On the diving side, junior Jordan Gotro moved up from the preliminaries to finish 25th in the 1-meter springboard with a score of 314.40.
Saturday had two more All-American swims. Sophomore Nils Wich-Glasen improved his time from his preliminary 100 breaststroke swim to 52.31, good for seventh place and the German’s first All-American performance in the 2016 Championships. Peribonio cashed in another top swim by placing 16th in 400 IM. Wich-Glasen’s time of 52.31 and Peribonio’s time of 3:43.95 set Gamecock records in their respective events.
The final day had a big round-up of top-placed finishers. Mahmoud almost eked out a first in the 1650 freestyle, only losing to University of Penn’s Chris Swanson by 0.12 seconds. Mahmoud’s second-place finish is the highest by any swimmer from the USC program.
Peribonio and Bekemeyer also had strong performances in the 1650, finishing sixth and 22nd respectively. In the platform dive, Gotro placed 12th and earned his first All-American award. The only mishap of the day came when Wich-Glasen, who was seeded 12th in the 200 breaststroke coming into the finals, disqualified from a one-handed touch.
"It's been a great week,” coach Moody said. “Up until this morning, we'd broken school records in every event and were All-Americans in every event. I couldn't have asked these guys to do anything more. Tonight, it just got even better. It's probably the best meet I've ever been a part of as a group. It's a very dedicated young group of men, and you haven't heard the last of them — I promise you."