Germany’s Nils Wich-Glasen ha given his verbal commitment to join the team at South Carolina next fall, marking another international recruit, and another name added to what projects to be an impressive Gamecock recruiting class on both the men’s and the women’s side of the aisle. Wich-Glasen is a member of the German squad that swam at the European Short Course Championships in December, where he was 32nd overall in the 100 breast and 21st in the 200 breast.
” I chose to study in the US, because of the good connection between academics and athletics and to bring my training to a whole new level,” he said of his decision to leave Germany and swim in the NCAA.
Wich-Glasen is primarily a breaststroker, and the 19-year old has long course bests of 1:03.6 in the 100 breaststroke and 2:15.22 in the 200 breaststroke. Per our Speedo Swim Time Converter, those come out to around a 55.5 and 1:58.21, respectively. If those conversions hold, and with an expected amount of improvement in a year, he should be good for points in a breaststroke-deep SEC next season.
Wich-Glasen also goes 2:06.90 in the 200 IM in long course, and thus far in his career he’s overall been better in short course than in long course.
South Carolina already has a very good breaststroke group and one that’s balanced across the classes, with junior-to-be Kevin Liethold and senior-to-be Alex Vance, so Wich-Glasen will make a good addition to that group.
Wich-Glasen’s birthday is in September, so he will still be 19 when he begins his South Carolina career, and he trains under Roland Böller at SSG 81 Erlangen (the same coach that produced former World Champion Hannah Scokbauer
Also giving a late commitment this spring to South Carolina (technically a regular commitment) is Egyptian champion Ahmed Akram Abbas.
