INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The second day of competition is underway for Carson-Newman swimming at the National Championships and after the prelims, a handful of Eagles made it to the finals this evening while adding more school records to their resume.
"For me, again it was a mixed morning, but there are a lot of real positives to come out of it," Coach Jordan Taylor said. "The girls making it into the 'A' final tonight with one of our fastest times in history on the 200 free relay. We think if we improve our time, we've got a chance to get second potentially in the country which would be awesome."
First up for the Eagles were the men's and women's 200 Free Relay. For the men, seniors Seth Hughes and Jonathan Goss competed with sophomores Chad Andoljsek and Nikola Tadic finishing in 10thplace with a time of 1:20.49.
On the women's side, seniors Elly Culp and Lisa Postma, junior Mary Northcutt and sophomore Laurel Sankowski competed. The ladies finished in fourth place in the prelims with a time 1:32.66. As the anchor, Culp had the fastest relay split in school history with a 22.5.
The men advanced to the 'B' final and the women's finish landed them in the 'A' final tonight.
The next event was the 400 IM prelims. Sophomore CJ Jensen and freshmen Meredith Ginn competed for the women. Jensen finished in 14th place with a time of 4:24.89 landing her lane in the 'B' final tonight along with clinching a new school record and personal best with the time. Ginn finished in 33rd place with a time of 4:35.12.
Caleb Howell was the only Eagle for the men in the event and he finished at No. 15. His time of 3:55.11 was enough to take him to the 'B' final of the event tonight.
In the 100 Fly, Culp was the only Eagle to compete in the event on either side and swam into 29th place with a time of 56.19. Postma swam in the 200 Free and finished in 40th place at 1:54.12.
Matt George and Marcelo Figueiredo competed in the 200 Free for the men. George came in 21st place at 1:38.35 etching a school record while Figueiredo was just slightly behind him in 27thplace with a personal best time of 1:38.99.
The last event of the morning for the Eagles was the men's 400 Medley Relay where George, Figueiredo, Howell, and Hughes competed together. The four finished in 17th place with a time of 3:19.36 just missing qualifying for the finals. However, each of them swam their best times on their individual legs.
"Although there were some disappointments along the way, we were overall really pleased," Taylor said. "We're excited about finals tonight. Tomorrow's a big day for us as we have some big races that we're trying to get some momentum going into."
The day will continue this evening when the finals start at 6 p.m. Check back on cneagles.com for updates.
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