CHARLOTTE, N.C. – For the second straight day in the Queen City, it is the youth of Carson-Newman swimming leading the charge in the 2022 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships. Friday saw many Eagles swim top finishes as well as a couple top-five event times were set from the MCAC in Charlotte, N.C.
Through two days of events in the Queen City, C-N maintains a top-three placement as they still stand in third place behind Queens (N.C.) and Wingate for both men and women. Carson-Newman women's have amassed 578 points while the men's team sees 505 points to their two-day total.
"Another amazing day for the team filled with great swims," head coach Jordan Taylor said
For the second straight day of competition, C-N freshman Henrique Pacheco has made his mark for the Eagles. After setting two top-five program times in the men's 200-yard IM on Thursday, the freshman would set another top-five program time Friday morning.
His prelims time of 3:57.56 cements him as the third fastest Eagle in the men's 400-yard IM. He will now go up against competition from Queens (N.C.), Wingate, and Lenoir-Rhyne in Friday's event 'A' finals.
Well, it looked like Pacheco was not happy with how his prelims performance ended. In the event finals Friday night, the freshman submitted another top-five event time as he came in at 3:55.89, a seventh-place finish. This is now the third-fastest 400-yard IM time for an Eagle and the fourth top-five event time set by Pacheco through two days of competition.
"Our goal in recruiting is to continue to better our program and push our current athletes to be their best, which guys like Henrique have achieved," Taylor said. "He has stepped up massively so far here in Charlotte and to see him swimming 'A' finals times is really exciting."
In the women's 100-yard butterfly, it was junior Manon Compagner (Balkburg, The Netherlands) stepping up as she qualified for the event's 'A' finals after swimming a prelims time of 55.52. This was the fourth fastest time submitted Friday morning and placed Compagner amongst competition from Queens (N.C.) and Wingate.
When it came to the event finals, Compagner gathered a third-place finish as she nearly bested her prelims time by a whole second, coming in at 55.08 and setting a Division II provisional time in the process. The Netherlands native was joined in the event's overall top-10 by Kyla Blakemore (Durban, South Africa) who came in with a finals time of 57.32 and 10th overall.
The same could be said in the men's 100-yard butterfly as sophomore Nicolas Lenuza (Spain) continued his hot start in the 2022 BMC Championships, turning in a top-five prelims time and qualifying for the event's 'A' finals. His time of 48.31 tied with Queens athlete Matej Dusa as both competitors would swim later Friday in the finals.
As one of the event's top eight, Lenuza did not waste any time in cementing another notch in his CNSW career. After swimming a prelims time of 48.31, the Spain native swam a finals time of fourty-eight seconds flat, perfect for not only a third place finish but now moves Lenuza as the fifth-fastest Eagle for the event.
For the women's 400-yard IM, senior Meredith Ginn (Ocala, Fla.) stepped up once again as she qualified for the event's 'A' finals with a prelims time of 4:28.77. She moved on to face competition from Queens (N.C.), Wingate, and Lenoir-Rhyne in Friday's final. In the event's final, Ginn came in only two seconds away from the event win as she finished second with a time of 4:24.60.
Ginn was joined as a top-10 event finisher by teammate Rachel Peden (Boiling Springs, S.C.) who turned in a finals time of 4:30.19, a Division II provisional time and placing Peden as ninth overall for the event.
"Swimmers were stepping up in finals with their best times, top 5 program times, school records, and even some high national rankings," Taylor said. "These last few days should be exciting as a whole."
In his final BMC Championships appearance, senior Matthew George (Manchester, England) saw his first top-ten finish of the 2022 version, this time coming in the men's 200-yard freestyle. With his finals time of 1:39.17, the England native swam his way to a tenth-place finish.
The night concluded for C-N in the 400-yard medley relay. Unfortunately for the Eagles, only the women's team would register an official finish as they came in second with a time of 3:44.04. This time was turned in by the quartet of Kyla Blakemore, Kailee Morgan (Greeneville, S.C.), Manon Compagner, and Summer Osborne (Clearwater, Fla.).
The whole Carson-Newman team will be back in action tomorrow, Feb. 12, starting at 10 a.m. with prelims for the third day of action. The event final will be livestreamed by Queens University starting at 5:00 p.m. as the streaming link can be found at cneagles.com.
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman swim team on C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
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