Fort Lauderdale, FL – The Carson-Newman women's swim team competed in five events on day one of the 2017 NSU Shark Invitational, currently sitting second out of eight in the team rankings. The invitational brought about 350 student-athletes in total, this year.
"A great effort by our girls today with it being just six weeks into the season," Coach Jordan Taylor exclaimed. "A lot of our swimmers were surprised with themselves on how well they did, we got positive feedback and just proud of the whole day."
The first event of the day brought a second-place finish in the women's 200-yard freestyle with swimmers Lisa Postma, Margaret Stansberry, Mary Northcutt and Elly Culp finishing .35 seconds behind leader Nova Southeastern with a time of 1:34.96.
The team of Laurel Sankowski, Maggie Melhorn, Ksenia Naydenova and Kelsey Robins finished with the fifth-best time at 1:38.79.
Lexy Raybon held the best time by an Eagle in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:06.05. Regina Zipperer (5:13.34) finished with one of her best times in the event.
Melhorn, a senior from Knoxville, Tennessee, collected a first-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley, topping 53 other swimmers in the event with a time of 2:06.12. She defeated last year's runner-up at nationals in Alex Divelbiss from Wingate.
Out of 80 swimmers to compete in the 50-yard freestyle, C-N found five of its swimmers inside the top-11. Lisa Postma, a junior native of Leiden Holland, checked in at second-place with a time of 23.69, just being edged by Sydney Panzarino of NSU at 23.47.
Culp came in right behind Postma finishing the event at 24.04, and Stansberry rounded out the top-5 with at 24.08. Sankowski (24.40) and Northcutt (24.42) finished 10th and 11th respectively. Despite tying for 29th, Naydenova swam one of her best times in the event completing it in 25.32.
"Proud of the way Ksenia and Regina swam today earning some of their best times," mentioned Taylor. "Maggie was incredible again and we really continued to be strong in our relay's."
The Eagles also came away with a first-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay, finishing with a time over a full second better than the next closest team in NSU. The 'A' squad of Stansberry, Melhorn, Culp, and Postma completed the event in 3:50.48.
Carson-Newman's efforts on day one were good enough for 225.5 points, just six shy of first place Nova Southeastern. The two teams hold at least a 78.5-point advantage over the next closest team in Indian River State College.
"It's nice to see how we stack up against some of the best teams in the nation," Taylor added. "Early on in the season, it's an excellent opportunities for these swimmers and they are making the most of it."
The next session will take place tomorrow morning, Oct. 14 at 9:30 a.m., with the afternoon session to follow right after at 2:00 p.m.
You can view the full results from day one here.
