With just under one month to go until the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Isabella Arcila and Jonathan Gomez have been selected to represent their home country of Colombia, and join four other current or former Mustangs to compete in the first games to be held in South America.
Arcila, the former freestyle and backstroke specialist for the Mustangs broke her own National Record in the 50-meter freestyle at the XXI Caribbean Islands Swimming Championships held June 29-July 4 in the Bahamas. Arcila posted a Rio Olympic Standard Time of 25.52, which bested her previous record of 25.61 set in Mesa this past April. The SMU volunteer assistant coach also posted a B standard time in the 100 distance during the qualification period.
The Cali, Colombia, native competed for the Mustangs from 2012-15 and is the program record holder in the 50-yard freestyle. She earned All-America honors in the 100 distance in 2015, and has six additional honors under her belt in relay events. Arcila garnered seven individual conference championships, set three conference meet records and amassed 24 all-conference honors in individual and relay events over four years.
Gomez, who will begin competition with the Mustangs this fall, achieved his Olympic Qualifying Standard in the 200-meter butterfly at the CISC Championships. Also a native of Cali, Gomez turned in a time of 1:56.72, under the 1:56.97 A standard. Gomez is a transfer from Saint Peter's University in New Jersey. Gomez was named the Most Outstanding Swimmer of the 2014 MAAC Championships after winning three events and breaking the meet record in the 200-yard butterfly. As a sophomore, he bested his 200 fly time by two seconds, and was conference champion in the 400-yard individual medley.
Arcila and Gomez will join Julian Fletcher (Bermuda), Rachel Nicol (Canada), Nina Rangelova (Bulgaria) and Matea Samardzic (Croatia) in the pool Aug. 6-13, with the Games running Aug. 5-21.
