For more commitment articles, be sure to check out SwimSwam’s College Recruiting channel.
NOVA of Virginia Aquatics’ Will Riggs gives South Carolina a big commitment for next fall.
Riggs’ Top Times (SCY)
- 1000 free – 9:22.58
- 1650 free – 15:46.87
- 200 fly – 1:51.48
- 400 IM – 4:02.12
Riggs’ potential in the 200 fly is intriguing– while his 1:51.48 won’t come close to scoring at the SEC Championships in this day and age, he dropped a 2:02.23 LCM this summer to place 3rd at NCSAs, which is just .24 off of the Olympic Trials cut. That time converts to a 1:47.59, which is less than a second away from 24th place in prelims at SECs last year in the 200 fly. Riggs told SwimSwam that “I was mainly focused on distance free until this past summer when my butterfly emerged as a strength, and now I am training to make my Olympic trial cut.”
Regardless of whether or not his 200 fly comes along in short course, he’s a great distance freestyler with a good 400 IM to boot. Riggs is very good across many events, and some specialization training with the Gamecocks could mold him into a conference scorer in a few events. Even better for Riggs is the SEC conference schedule, which has the 400 IM, 200 fly, and 1650 free on three different days of competition. The 200s of stroke and the 1650 free tend to be on the same day at a lot of other conference championships, but this won’t be an issue for Riggs.
South Carolina had a host of distance talent last year. They had three guys in the top 12 of the mile at SECs last season led by freshmen Tom Peribonio and Akaram Mahmoud at 4th and 5th in the conference. Peribonio added an 8th in the 500 free and a 14th place finish in the 400 IM and Mahmoud busted out a 4th place finish in the 500. On their roster this year, they have 6 upperclassmen and 18 underclassmen; the Gamecocks’ future is looking bright.
Riggs joins Carter Bennett and Will Countie in South Carolina’s incoming class.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email to [email protected]
I think that SC also has a pretty good freshman this year in distance events (500, 1000, 1650 and 400IM) in Cody Bekemeyer. My two boys swam with him last year in High School here in the Atlanta area and Cody was 6-A H.S. GA State champ in the 500 this past season. He also did pretty well at Jr. Nationals in Texas this past summer. South Carolina has some good, young talent.