Video: Jordan Taylor Interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman Swim Coach Jordan Taylor has released the schedule for the upcoming 2020-21 season as the Eagles will look to continue the program's national success. Taylor will begin his sixth season as head coach alongside three returning swimmers that qualified for the 2019 NCAA DII National Championships in Indianapolis.

Since the program's inception in 2012, the Eagles are a combined 23-3 at home dual meets inside the MSAC, with the men going undefeated since 2014 and the women only holding one loss during the same timeframe.

"We are very successful at home. We have had a lot of top teams come to Carson-Newman and race on our home soil" Taylor mentioned. "We have supportive faculty, staff, and parents who come and make a lot of noise and make an electric atmosphere."

Taylor's group will play host to five home meets over the course of the season which includes one of the top D2 programs in the nation in Wingate visiting Mossy Creek to start off the season for a one-day dual meet on Oct. 10. Some notable other home meets will be Lees-McRae at the end of October, and both Mars Hill and Emmanuel (Ga.) making trips to the Creek in January of 2021.

Among the away meets, C-N will return to the University of Tennessee Invite for the fourth straight year, where in 2019 the program qualified for the NCAA National Championships in Indianapolis. Going into the 2019 UTK Invite, both teams were ranked nationally in the top 20, while skyrocketing higher in the ranks after the weekend's events.

"Dual meets are a fun two-hour competitive event, but we try and go to multiple day events to get more practice in multiple events while also getting used to resting in between." Taylor stated. "We try to a part of very fast swimming that will help us get ready for Conference and hopefully, Nationals later in the year."

It's a long, grueling season for both the men's and women's programs, a season that does not compare with many other collegiate sports with the exception of golf lasting from September to the ultimate goal of the NCAA National Championships in March.

"We plan to continue getting stronger with a broad scope of athletes coming into our program" Taylor stated. "We try to cover all strokes and distances when we look at athletes. We're excited to get a constant pool time, so we can get stronger and be more successful than we have been in the past years."

-CN-