VIDEO: Jordan Taylor Interview
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Carson-Newman swim team closed out the first day of the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships with a bang, as nine of C-N's student-athletes earned Honorable Mention All-American honors.
"Like I said this morning, we were a little bit nervy," said swim coach Jordan Taylor. "It was a good chance to get into the meet and shake out the cobwebs and build from here."
The first honoree of the evening was Sam Schechter (Knoxville, Tenn.). The senior churned out a time of 20.29 in the men's 50 free to place fifth in the event's "B" final and garner an All-American selection.
The Eagles also excelled in the 200 medley relay on the both the men's side and the women's side. For the women, Maggie Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.), Elly Culp (West End, N.C.), Lisa Postma (Leiden, Holland) and Mary Northcutt (Huntsville, Ala.) teamed up to finish with a time of 1:43.84, good enough for sixth in the "B" race and another Honorable Mention All-American spot. This is the fourth such honor for Culp, the third for Postma, the second for Melhorn and the first for Northcutt.
The men's 200 medley relay team, which consisted of Pijus MacKevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania), Andrei Roman (Medias, Romania), Seth Hughes (Kingston, Tenn.) and Schechter, concluded the night with another solid performance. They posted the fourth-best time in the "B" final, hitting the wall in 1:29.26. For Schechter, his second All-American accolade of the night was also the fourth of his career, while MacKevicius, Roman and Hughes each earned the distinction for the first time.
"Sam came in here ranked 23rd [in the 50 free]," said Taylor. "He moved up to 16th this morning and then moved up a few more spots in the final. He came away 13th overall and being 13th in the national is nothing to be [ashamed of]." Both relays moved up from where they were ranked this morning. The girls entered the day rated 19th, got into the "B" final and finished 14th and the guys moved up a few positions to finish 12th. I think that will give the team some confidence going into tomorrow morning."
The second day of competition in Birmingham will consist of 11 events with the preliminary races beginning at 11 a.m. Live coverage of the event will be available at ncaa.com/sports/swimming-men/d2. A recap of the day's action will be published at cneagles.com.
-CN-