The South Carolina Gamecocks have announced their schedule for the upcoming 2017-18 NCAA season.
Their season will begin with the women traveling to Columbia, Mo. for a meet with Mizzou and Arkansas, two SEC opponents, on Oct. 14th. Five days later, both the men and women will head to West Lafayette for a Thursday night matchup with Purdue, then close out the road trip with a dual at Cincinnati on Oct. 21st.
Their first home meet will be against UNC, and a dual against SEC opponent Auburn will close out their tough fall schedule. The Gamecocks will attend the Georgia Tech Invite before their winter break, and then they’ll come back to face East Carolina. A dual with Georgia Tech will close out their regular season, before they head to the SEC Championships from Feb. 14-18.
South Carolina will see the return of a very impressive distance squad on their men’s side, headed by Fynn Minuth and Akaram Mahmoud. Minuth and Mahmoud A-finaled in the 500 free at NCAAs this spring, while Mahmoud touched 3rd in a great four-person battle in the mile. Cody Bekemeyer and Tom Peribonio are two more distance aces for South Carolina, as Peribonio scored in the 500 and mile at NCAAs, while Bekemeyer chipped in some points in the mile.
That distance group will grow substantially in depth and talent thanks to three incoming freshman. There’s Brandonn Almeida, the Brazilian former world junior record holder in the 400 IM who committed last fall, along with Hungary’s Tamas Novoszath and Spain’s Rafael Davila.
Meanwhile, the women will be led by Emma Barksdale, who had a fantastic summer and finished top 10 in the nation at Worlds Trials in both IMs, including a 6th place finish in the 200.
