Israel’s Mark Shperkin has announced (via Instagram) his verbal commitment to the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. His caption states he’ll be joining the class of 2023. Shperkin is primarily a sprint freestyler, which should help out a Gamecock squad that has been very successful on the NCAA stage in distance freestyle but has lacked a lethal sprint group.
It’s difficult to pin down Shperkin’s lifetime best times from a verifiable source, but he did compete at the 2016 European Junior Championships. There, he clocked times of 23.48 in the 50m free and 51.12 in the 100m free. He also has a 23.27 in the 50 logged in USA Swimming’s top times by country database, from the 2015 Israeli National Championships, as well as a 50.36 from the 2017 Israel Cup.
TOP TIMES
- 50m free – 23.27
- 100m free – 50.36
These are pretty strong long course times in the sprint frees — they translate to 20.24 for the 50 and 43.92 in the 100. It’s never as cut and dry to translate from long course to short course yards like that, but it’s certainly promising.
South Carolina finished dead last at the SEC Championships in the 200 free relay (note that Auburn technically didn’t score any points due to a DQ, but were still full seconds ahead), with only two splits coming in under 20 seconds. They also wound up last in the 400 free relay with no sub-44 splits, so Shperkin could end up coming in next fall to lead the sprint group.
Shperkin joins Texas’s Cole Bruns in the class joining South Carolina next fall.
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What a talent.
SEC not ACC in the relays 😁
Thanks for the catch!