The South Carolina swimming and diving team began competition at the 2026 SEC Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event opened with several relay and individual events, as well as diving competitions.
Sophie Verzyl secured an SEC title in the women’s 1-meter dive, finishing with a score of 342.35. Earlier in the day, Verzyl entered the finals as the top seed after scoring 340.00 in preliminaries. She had previously earned a silver medal in this event at last year’s championships.
The women’s 800 freestyle relay team—Ellery Ottem, Amy Riordan, Breckin Gormley and Meaghan Harnish—finished fifth with a time of 7:03.23. On the men’s side, Pierre Largeron, Bexon Harrison, Ryan Hufford and Kyle Korvick competed in the same relay event.
In the 200 medley relay, Dylan Scholes, Liz Goodwin-Birnie, Taylor Grimley and Kara West placed eleventh with a time of 1:38.05 for the women’s team. The men’s team of Ryan Hufford, Einar Agustsson, Eldor Usmonov and Quinn Buck also finished eleventh at 1:24.97.
Timed finals for both men’s and women’s 1650 freestyle took place during Tuesday morning’s session along with preliminary rounds for women’s diving events. For South Carolina’s women swimmers in the 1650 freestyle final, Nora Fluck (16:15.69), Breckin Gormley (16:18.78) and Emma Reiser (16:19.16) placed eighth through tenth respectively—all achieving top ten program times.
For men’s heats in the same event, Pierre Largeron placed thirteenth with a time of 14:57.56—the seventh-fastest mark in school history—while Connor Fry finished seventeenth (15:05.00) and Ryan Turner twenty-third (15:23.00).
Additional trial swims included Delaney Franklin (1:57.60) and Molly Yacoviello (1:58.82) competing in the women’s 200 butterfly; Michael Cooper recorded a time of 55.04 seconds in the men’s 100 breaststroke.
Senior Charley Bayer represented South Carolina on day one by competing in men’s one-meter diving where he finished twenty-fourth with a score of 270.90; he is scheduled to participate later this week on three-meter springboard and platform events.
