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USA Swimming Scholastic All-American Grace Tuchi has announced her verbal commitment to the University of South Carolina, beginning in the fall of 2024. Tuchi is from Charlotte, North Carolina, where she attends Myers Park High School.
She shared her commitment on Instagram:
Tuchi trains year-round with SwimMAC Carolina, which is a Gold Medal club under USA Swimming’s Club Excellence Program. Her event focus is mainly on IM and breaststroke. She qualified for summer Junior Nationals last year in the 200 breast with a best LCM time of 2:38.24.
Tuchi recently kicked off her long course season at Speedo Sectionals in Indianapolis, where she recorded two personal best times. She swam a best time by nearly two seconds in the 100m breast to post a 1:13.69, taking 25th overall. She also shaved off nearly a second in the 200m IM, stopping the clock at 2:21.99 to finish 25th.
A month prior to Sectionals, she capped off her short course season at the North Carolina Senior Championships where she set season best or personal best times nearly in every event. Highlighting her meet was her best time performances in the 200 and 400 IM, where she recorded times of 2:04.32 and 4:22.51 to finish 3rd and 5th, respectively.
Top SCY Times:
- 100 breast – 1:04.10
- 200 breast – 2:17.07
- 200 IM – 2:04.32
- 400 IM – 4:22.51
The Gamecocks are coming off of an 8th place finish at the 2023 SEC Championships. Six swimmers earned bids to the NCAA Division I Championships, including Victoria Kwan, Laura Goettler, Nicholle Toh, Greta Pelzek, Janie Smith, and Tatiana Salcutan.
The IM group was led by Kwan and Goettler this season, both of whom posted top-8 finishes at SECs. Kwan took 7th in the 200 IM with a 1:58.05 in finals, while Goettler placed 8th in the 400 IM in a final time of 4:13.37. Both will be gone by the time Tuchi arrives in Columbia, leaving South Carolina with a gap to fill in the IM events.
With her commitment, Tuchi joins Brooke Beede, Emma Reiser, and Reagan Phillips in South Carolina’s class of 2028. The program is led by head coach Jeff Poppell, who took over in 2021.
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YES TUCHI 🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Awesome kid right here, super aggressive fast swimmer. Good for the Gamecocks, congrats to Grace!