VIDEO: Jordan Taylor Interview
Division II Men's Swimmers Invited by Team
Division II Women's Swimmers Invited by Team
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The qualifications list for the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships has been released and the Carson-Newman swim team had five of its student-athletes selected to compete in the event, which will be held from March 8th – 11th at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala.
"We've done well," swim coach Jordan Taylor said. "We've got two guys who qualified individually after having none last year. That's a big improvement for us. We also qualified in all five relays on both the female and male sides. That allows us to take an additional eight athletes. All our relays are ranked high nationally, they're all in the top 15. We're looking for some very high finished in those relays. Everyone is excited. We've got 13 swimmers traveling when you include the relays and that's more than we've ever had."
Two men and three women made the cut for the meet and the Eagles will be represented in eight races during the four day competition. This marks the program's second trip to nationals in its history, with C-N's previous visit coming in 2015, when they totaled nine participants.
For all three women making the trek to Birmingham, this will be their second opportunity to compete on the national stage. Juniors Maggie Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.), Lexy Raybon (Sarasota, Fla.) and Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.) were all in Indianapolis two years ago and now will have another chance to compete against the best swimmers Division II has to offer. They will be joined by senior Sam Schechter (Knoxville, Tenn.), also making his second appearance at nationals, and sophomore Andrei Roman (Medias, Romania), the only team member making his first trip to the NCAA championships.
Stansberry made the cut in three events for Carson-Newman: the 200 individual medley, the 200 free and the 100 free. Her qualifying time of 2:03.20 in the 200 IM came in November when the Eagles visited the University of Cincinnati for the Bearcats Midseason Invitational. She added the other two qualifying times at her team's most recent event, the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships. Stansberry took home the gold medal in the 200 free and broke the school record with a mark of 1:48.21 and clocked in at 50.44 in the 100 free to gain a chance to compete in a third race in Alabama. She enters the 200 free seeded fifth and 100 free seeded seventh.
Melhorn will be part of the field in the 100 and 200 breaststroke after swimming national "B" qualifying times in both events at the BMC Championships. In the 100, she clocked in at 1:02.37, while registering a time of 2:17.19 in the 200. Raybon earned her ticket to Birmingham at the BMC Championships as well. She put up a time of 2:03.62 in the 200 fly to qualify for the competition.
When Schechter swam at nationals in 2015, one of those swims came in the 50 free and he will be battling for first place in that race again in 2017. The Knoxville native won the BMC's top prize in the event in early February when he hit the wall in a C-N record 20.21. Roman will be amongst the student-athletes fighting for the best mark in the 100 breaststroke after he churned out a time of 54.74 at the conference championships.
In addition to the individual races, coach Jordan Taylor's crew has also put up provisional times in the 200 medley relay, the 400 medley relay, the 200 free relay, the 400 free relay and the 800 free relay on both the men's and women's sides.
Four members of the squad, sophomores Elly Culp (West End, N.C.), Lisa Postma (Leiden, Holland), Jon Lancaster (Ringgold, Ga.) and Pijus MacKevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) were selected as alternates, meaning they could swim if an athlete withdraws from the meet.
"The team has let the invite list sink in a little bit, they've had 24 hours to think about it and we've been back in the weight room today," Taylor said. "We're jumping in the pool and everyone knows their job. They have to get themselves ready to go in a couple weeks and be ready to swim fast."
For news and updated leading up to the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships, visit cneagles.com.
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