ROCK HILL, S.C. – The Carson-Newman men's and women's swim teams each sit in third after the second night of competition at the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships at the Rock Hill Aquatic Center in Rock Hill, S.C.
The men's team fell from first to third after the second day and trail top-ranked and first-place Queens (N.C.) by just under 300 points; the 17th-ranked women remained in third and have tallied 395 points and sit behind two top-five teams in Queens and Wingate.
Sophomore Lexy Raybon (Sarasota, Fla.), sophomore Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.), sophomore Maggie Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.), freshman Lisa Postma (Leiden, Holland), junior Samantha Starnes (Knoxville, Tenn.), freshman Elly Culp (West End, N.C.) and junior Sam Schechter (Knoxville, Tenn.) each took home All-Bluegrass Mountain Conference honors after either finishing in the top-six of an individual event or finishing in the top-three of a relay.
"It was an excellent way to represent C-N tonight," coach Paige McCord said. "Tonight was excellent for the team. It was great swimming by the Eagles."
Raybon opened the night with a school record swim of 4:56.40 in the 500 Free and finished second in the event for her best career finish at the BMC Championships and garnered All-BMC honors. Raybon behind Queen's Patri Castro Ortega, who reset her BMC record by five seconds. Junior Nancy Claire Smith (Franklin, Tenn.) finished 16th in the event with a time of 5:10.15.
Stansberry and Melhorn each took home All-BMC accolades in the 200 Individual Medley with a fifth and sixth-place showing respectively. Stansberry reset her school record in the event with a time of 2:03.80, while Melhorn followed closely behind her classmate with a swim of 2:04.88; each time qualified the duo for a provisional NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship spot. Freshman Olivia Winkler (Marietta, Ga.) placed 14th, while junior Amanda Henderson (Bartlett, Tenn.) finished fourth-tenths of a second behind her in 16th.
Postma, Starnes and Culp all took home top-seven finishes in the 50 Free with Postma leading the way in fifth. The Holland-native swam a time of 23.77 while Starnes finished just behind her in a time of 23.93 seconds; Postma and Starnes each received All-BMC awards. Culp finished just outside the top-six with a time of 24.01 seconds.
The 400 Medley Relay team consisting of Henderson, Melhorn, Culp and Stansberry capped the night with the team's third All-BMC relay of the week with a third-place finish; the relay team swam the event in 3:47.42 and recorded a provisional time for the National meet. The quartet missed a new Carson-Newman record by just under a half-second.
Freshman Jon Lancaster (Ringgold, Ga.) placed seventh in the 500 Free to open the evening for the men with a time of 4:34.63; during the prelims, Lancaster reset his C-N record with a time of 4:33.56. Junior Tommy Bourgeois (Kingsport, Tenn.) placed 19th in the 500 Free with a swim of 4:39.85.
Junior Josh Grover (Villa Rica, Ga.) placed 14th in the 200 Individual Medley with a swim of 1:54.65, while sophomore Davis Vincent (Loganville, Ga.) and freshman Ryland Darling (Arlington, Tenn.) placed 18th and 21st in the 200 I.M., respectively.
The 2015 All-American Schechter picked up his third-career All-BMC accolade in the 50 Free with a sixth-place finish with a time of 20.66 seconds; freshman Jonny Goss (Heiskell, Tenn.) placed 11th in the event with a time of 20.99 seconds while fellow freshman Pijus Mackevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) finished in 15th-place after swimming the event in 21.18 seconds.
Freshman Seth Hughes (Kingsport, Tenn.), Darling, sophomore Ryan Burcham (Lenoir City, Tenn.) and Schechter finished the men's team's night with a fifth-place finish in the 400 Medley Relay with a time of 3:20.21 and finished just four seconds off the school record.
The third day of competition from the Palmetto State kicks off at 10 a.m. on Friday morning at the Rock Hill Aquatic Center.
- C-N -
