Swim and Dive earn all-American honors at NCAAs

From March 22-25, the men’s Swimming and Diving Team competed in this year’s NCAA championships in Minnesota. They ended the weekend with a 22nd-place finish. 

In men’s swimming, sophomore Artem Selin finished 32nd in the 50-yard freestyle, while sophomore Chris O’Grady finished 34th in the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke. 

In the 1-meter diving event, sophomore Wang Shangfei earned fifth, freshman Laurent Gosselin-Paradis placed 18th and senior George Korovin placed 33rd. The 3-meter was USC’s standout event, with Wang as the runner-up and Korovin finishing 17th. For both 1-meter and 3-meter, Wang earned All-American honors, awarded for finishing in the top eight of an event.

“Actually, second place, I didn’t expect this situation [to] happen,” said Wang in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I was just thinking: Get through it, as soon as I’m done I can take some time for break. But apparently the performance level was quite high.”

Wang also competed in the NCAAs last year, finishing 11th in the 3-meter.

“For the first year, I was trying to push myself to perform [at] the best level I could,” Wang said. “But actually, diving is a complicated sport. Once you really want something, especially on board, you really can’t control your body to perform that well.”

Wang’s second-place finish on 3-meter marks USC’s best result in men’s diving since Head Coach Li Hongping joined in 1999.

“His performance was electrified,” Li said. “I seldomly will [stand] up and cheer for my athletes unless they perform above or beyond their level of my expectations, and Shangfei made me stand up twice last week for two of his dives.”

At the Pac-12 postseason awards, Wang won Diver of the Year, Gosselin-Paradis won Freshman Diver of the Year and Li won Men’s Diving Coach of the Year for the sixth time.

Women’s Swimming and Diving NCAAs in Knoxville, held from March 15-18, also had standout performances from divers. Graduate student Lina Sculti took sixth place in the 1-meter and 3-meter events. Senior Nike Agunbiade finished fifth on platform. Both divers won All-American honors for their results.

“Their performance was outstanding,” Li said. “I’m very pleased. Overall, it has been a very rewarding season for my diving program.”

In women’s swimming, junior Kaitlyn Dobler performed well, finishing fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke and earning an All-American honor. Fifth-year Isabelle Odgers placed 14th in the same event and 8th in the 200-yard breaststroke. The team finished tenth in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard medley relay. Overall, the women’s swim and dive team combined to finish 12th at the NCAAs, an improvement on their 16th-place finish last year.

“Swimming and diving really came together to have a much better performance than we had last year, which was something that I know everyone was really excited about,” Odgers said. “I think that the upward trajectory that we’re on is just a testament to the teamwork and to the camaraderie between us.”

Odgers’ last swim for USC was the 200-yard breaststroke, which was her best ever performance on the team. 

“This was a really special way for me to wrap up my collegiate swimming career. I’m really excited to be leaving with the All-American honors in the 200 breaststroke,” Odgers said. “And I think that the team is in a much better place than we’ve been in in the past. I know that this is just the tip of the iceberg for all the incredible things that they’re going to accomplish next year.”

Li said he is also excited for his athletes to continue their success next season.

“When I went into the NCAA season this year, I anticipated that this [was] going to be a very good season for us. And it turned out it’s not just good. It was amazing,” Li said. “I’m hoping that we continue to keep up the momentum of how well we trained.”