VIDEO: Laurel Sankowski Interview
VIDEO: Andrew Wheeler Interview
VIDEO: Sights & Sounds, Highlights
Race Results: Blue's v. Orange Intrasquad Meet
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman swim team wrapped up their annual intrasquad meet this evening after the orange team defeated the blue team in the 22-event match by a final of 231-178.
"The energy was extremely high all the way through and that's something we preach about day in and day out," mentioned assistant coach Ben Young who lead the orange squad to a win. "Even though they were split up into two teams, it was a combined team effort for that energy to stay there. It gives us the opportunity to see things to improve on throughout season and push forward."
The orange squad jumped out to wins in eight of the first nine events before ultimately winning 16 total.
The most exciting of the events were the final two of the whole evening when both the women and men 200 yard medley relay's resulted in wins by a fraction of a second.
The blue team of CJ Jensen, Claudia Carroll, Elly Culp, & Lisa Posta finished the medley relay with a time of 1:50.56 beating out the orange 'A' squad by .02 seconds.
The follow up event for the men gave Seth Hughes, Ryland Darling, Ivo Kunzle, and Jonny Goss an orange team win over the blue squad by .01 seconds.
"The atmosphere was just awesome the whole night," exclaimed freshman Laurel Sankowski. "Those final races were just insane. We were literally screaming, it was definitely an intense moment."
"The energy was fantastic today, it was there throughout the meet and that last relay was the culmination of the whole thing," explained senior Andrew Wheeler. "People got hype, got up, got loud and we're definitely seeing some amazing times early this season."
Senior Margaret Stansberry won an individual high three races placing first in the 200 Yard Freestyle, 100 Yard Backstroke, and 100 Yard Freestyle. Jonny Goss and Marcelo Figueiredo split two events each on the men's side.
Sankowski got her first taste of the annual intrasquad meet, getting pitted against athletes who had more experience than the native of Indian Trail, N.C.
"Everyone has been really encouraging," said Sankowski. "They have been so supportive throughout and always are helping me with my stroke."
Wheeler was a part of the losing squad but was very happy with the energy shown by his teammates in his final intrasquad event.
"Everybody brought their 'A' game," said Wheeler. "I feel like everyone definitely gave it their all. We wanted to win and unfortunately didn't happen. Again, just happy with the friendly competition throughout."
You can view the full results of the event here.
The C-N swim team will set for their first dual meet of the season when they travel to Gaffney, S.C. to take on Limestone on Oct. 7.
"It's going to be a big meet, it always is and Limestone is a big rivalry for us," added Young. "We want to make sure we are getting every bit of potential out of each athlete every day."