BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Four days and many events later, Carson-Newman swim is heading back to Mossy Creek with a total 20 All-American trophies via 11 different All-American performances. The Eagles saw action wrap up in Birmingham on Saturday with five individuals in action along with the women's 400-yard freestyle relay competing.
The standout performance for Saturday goes to sophomore Raphael Lima (Sao Paulo, Brazil) setting the new school record in the men's 100-yard freestyle with his time of 43.27. With this record time, Lima gathered a fourth-place finish in the event and the title of All-American. Lima has set four new top-five program times in the event this season as only former All-American Andrei Ungur joins Lima on the board as the third-fastest with his 2020 time of 43.66.
"Tonight was another awesome night for us all around starting with Manon getting 13th and honorable All-American before Raphael set a personal best and a new school record in a very competitive event," head coach Jordan Taylor said. "Meanwhile, freshman Denilson Cyprianos had a great outlook after surgery a couple weeks ago and came out to perform at a high level as a young athlete. He has a lot of potential for the rest of his career as an Eagle. Finally, Meredith swam well and smart enough to gain her second All-American this week."
After the four-day event, Carson-Newman women finish ninth overall in all of Division II with 186 total team points. This matches the best every overall team performance for C-N at Nationals. The men of Carson-Newman finish the four-day event finish as 16th overall among all Division II programs.
The other notable performance of the night came from junior Meredith Ginn (Ocala, Fla.) who swam in the women's 200-yard breaststroke finals. Ginn secured herself another individual All-American honor with her finals time of 2:16.10. Her prelim time of 2:15.43 was a lifetime best for the Florida native and pushed her into the 'A' finals on Saturday. Both of these times are in the event's top five times as the second fastest (prelims) and third fastest (finals), respectively. Ginn was also a member of the women's 400-yard freestyle relay team who competed later on in the evening.
The night also saw freshman Denilson Cyprianos (Bulawayo, Matabeleland, Zimbabwe) wrap up his Nationals debut with his performance in the men's 200-yard backstroke. Cyprianos saw in the event's 'B' final as he found a 13th place finish with a time of 1:46.48. This gives Cyprianos the title of "Honorable Mention All-American" while also securing him another top five event time in program history. The freshman, who joined the squad after Christmas, now holds the third and fourth fastest event times as an Eagle.
Women's relay was back again Saturday night as the quartet of Ginn, sophomore Rachel Peden (Boiling Springs, S.C.), senior CJ Jensen (Copenhagen, Denmark), and sophomore Manon Compagner (Balkburg, The Netherlands) swam in the women's 400-yard freestyle. Although they could not secure another All-American honor, the Eagles wrapped up the competition with a time of 3:27.42 which is good enough for an 11th place finish.
"Of the girls competing, not one of them solely focuses on the 100-yard freestyle. So, for someone like Rachel to lead us off and help us gain another honorable All-American shows the talent and depth of our girls," Taylor said. "The girls came in ninth overall with only a few points seperating them from eighth. We last finished ninth three years ago with a squad full of All-Americans as well but there were six girls who competed when we last finished ninth. For us to have such a young team with no one leaving us next year, I'm excited to see these athletes continue growing and acheiving higher results next season."
Individually, Compagner gained herself the title of "Honorable Mention All-American" after finishing in 13th place for the women's 100-yard freestyle. Her time of 51.07 in the prelims gained her a spot in the event's 'B' finals as she improved her time by 0.01, finishing the event in 51.06 Saturday night.
Fellow sophomore Kailee Morgan (Greenville, S.C.) wrapped up her time at 2021 Nationals with another individual event appearance in the women's 200-yard breaststroke. Morgan could not move past prelims as she swam a time of 2:19.29 Saturday morning which placed her 17th overall and ended her event competition.
The distance mogul herself, Peden, tried to go the distance again Saturday night as she competed in the women's 1650-yard freestyle. She went up against some top-level competition as she swam a time of 17:16.85, which gives her the 17th place event finish. Peden was also a member of the women's 400-yard freestyle relay team who competed to end the night.
"To go through a year like this one and be able to come out with as many All-Americans and top performances we could, it just goes to show what our program is capable of on the big stage. Men still finish top-16 although we only had three qualifiers and I think this is a great end to a sesaon where a lot has gone on," Taylor said. "The team has handled themselves well to move this program forward and I'm proud of the athletes as we prepare for next season already."
This concludes the 2020-21 Carson-Newman Swimming season. Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman swimming via cneagles.com and all social media accounts.
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