JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman swim teams have reached their highest plateaus three years into the program as the women were ranked seventh and the men are currently 13th in the latest Division II CollegeSwimming.com rankings.
The women's squad jumped nine spots from its previous ranking of 16th while the men moved up 11 spots from 24th.
The rankings are coming off the heels of a performance at the Georgia Tech Invitational at McCauley Aquatic Center in Atlanta that saw three school records broken and 16 provisional times swam. Freshman distance swimmer Jon Lancaster (Ringgold, Ga.) was responsible for two of the new school records with sophomore Maggie Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.) smashing the other.
Earlier this week, sophomore Ryan Burcham (Lenoir City, Tenn.) and Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.) were named the Bluegrass Mountain Conference's Swimmers of the Week.
Last year, the both Eagles' teams finishes in the top-20 at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship in Indianapolis and had the first five All-American honors bestowed upon the team.
The Queens (N.C.) Royals are the only BMC team to be ranked higher than the women's team as Queens is currently third in the nation. The Limestone Saints and the Royals are both ahead of the men's team in 10th and 11th respectively.
Carson-Newman's next meet of the season is Dec. 12th against the Bellarmine Knights in Maddox Pool; the Knights' men are ranked 37th and the women are currently 30th in the rankings. The meet is the Eagles' lone home regular season meet of the season.