COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Eagles swimming team made the trip to Columbia, S.C. for the Gamecock Invitation held at the Carolina Natatorium which kicked off Wednesday, Nov. 20. The three-day meet is scheduled to run through Friday, Nov. 22 with all start times being at 10:00 a.m.
"Overall, we were absolutely sluggish this morning," said head coach Ben Young. "Not entirely sure why we weren't ready, but the way we came out this morning having some rough swims. Still had a handful of good swims and did what we needed to do in some areas. The team came back at night ready to go and had a much better night than this morning."
This is Carson-Newman's second trip to a Division I institution this season. The first of which was a trip to Virginia Tech back in October.
After the first day of the three-day meet, the Eagles came in last place overall on both the men's and women's sides.
The women's squad finished in ninth overall behind first place North Carolina, second place South Carolina, and third place University of Tampa. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Eagles came in 14th out of 27 teams behind fast performances of Olivia Muir, Emma Bowlin, Megan Corcoran, and Martina Ivanova in a time of 1:34.72.
"People came back ready to go in the nighttime section," said Young. "We had a much better night session, so it was fantastic to see them bounce back and do well."
Looking at the men's side, the Eagles placed sixth overall behind first place North Carolina, University of Tampa, and South Carolina. The standout performance for the men's squad came in the 400-yard medley relay with the team finishing 9th out of 17 squads in a time of 3:12.98. The squad was led by Will Humphreys, Asger Hartvig, Daniel de Oliveira, and Arthur Gluzman.
"The standout of the night was most certainly the 400 Medley on the men's side," Young said. "Another person to get a shoutout is Eli Conard. That man stepped up in massive ways tonight on the relays. He had an incredible session and really stepped up in some big ways tonight."
The Eagles look to have a strong start on day two of the Gamecock Invitational and hope to make a statement in the pool.
"The message to the team is to wake up," said Young. "We've got two more days of competition. The meet is here, it's a fast meet, we have to do whatever we need to do to make sure that we are prepared both mentally and physically. The biggest challenge is defiant;ley to take care of our bodies and doing what we need to do in order to bounce back in each and every session. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and getting back to the pool."
Carson-Newman returns for day two of the Gamecock Invitational Thursday, Nov. 21 at the Carolina Natatorium beginning at 10:00 a.m.
Stay up to date with all things Carson-Newman swimming by visiting cneagles.com.