ATLANTA – Day one of the Emory Fall Invitational concluded as both Carson-Newman sides sit in third place after 18 events at the Woodruff Physical Education Center.
"Some good and some bad today," Coach Jordan Taylor said. "Definitely a mix between the two but there were some good standouts for us. My main thing coming into today was being better individually. Most of our individual times were faster to collect a lot of points we need to be stronger on the back end."
Emory University leads on in both the men's and women's team rankings with 297 and 324 points respectively.
The No. 9 ranked women's program at Wingate ranks second with a total of 280 points, followed by No. 18 C-N with 179. Catawba rounds out the four teams with a score of 104.
The positions hold the same on the men's side with No. 10 Wingate at 238 points. The No. 20 Eagles are on the heels of the Bulldogs with a score of 231 after day one. Coach Taylor's group defeated Wingate in a dual meet in Jefferson City, Tenn. just a few weeks prior.
"It's was expected that Wingate they made some changes," Taylor said. "They strategized, changed some of their groupings for relays which we take as a compliment. I thought individual performances were great and we packed in well behind in some events but Emory jumps in there and takes some points as well with the different format in comparison to a dual meet where we can fill those gaps."
Caleb Howell took home the top spot in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:51.88 to grab sixteen points. The junior swimmer is currently third in the nation in the event, topping his previous time during the Wingate meet at 1:52.19 which was also good for third. Garrett Tse from the University of California-San Diego sits in second with a time of 1:51.65 with the top spot being held by Saint Leo's Hampus Lovinge at 1:50.79. The individual event win marks already a total of five in 2018.
Matthew George claimed third in the event turning in a time of 1:55.08 to collect 12 points for the squad. Jon Lancaster rounded out the top-six with a time of 1:55.97 to collect nine points.
Howell later followed up with a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke receiving 13 points with a time of 57.87 seconds. Giacomo Viazzo clipped Howell with a time of 57.79. Howell currently sits right outside the top-20 in the NCAA in the event.
Marcelo Figueiredo claimed C-N's second event win of the day with a top-time in the 500-yard freestyle. Figueiredo's time of 4:39.18 netted his team 16 points. The time currently puts the senior at No. 19 in the nation.
Casey Charles and Carson Knox also collected points for the Eagles turning in times of 4:52.55 and 4:55.08 respectively.
Freshman Andrei Ungur was credited with 11 points for C-N in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:54.46 and a third-place finish. Lancaster's time of 1:55.87 claimed five points.
The freshman George collected C-N's third and final individual event win of day one with a time of 1:52.89 in the 200-yard butterfly which was nearly a second better than second-place swimmer Nazarii Kosylo of Wingate (1:53.77). George's swim puts him at eighth in the nation jumping up from 19th following the Wingate meet.
Josh Winn (2:00.38) and Ivo Kunzle (2:00.84) finished 12th and 13th in the event adding another seven points to C-N's total.
Two Eagles groups in the 400-yard medley relay collected top-five finishes in the event. Ungur, Howell, George and Nikola Tadic turned in a third-place finish with a time of 3:27.68. Seth Hughes, Andrei Roman, Kunzle, and Chad Andoljsek rounded out the top-five at 3:30.74.
In the first event of the day on the women's side, Lisa Postma, Mary Northcutt, Yulia Fomina, and Elly Culp grabbed second in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:37.41 as they were narrowly clipped by Emory's 'A' side with a time of 1:37.24. Both team's times were nearly two seconds better than Wingate's 'A' team in third at 1:39.06. C-N's foursome is currently seventh in the nation after its 1:37.17 swim against Wingate last month.
Freshman Meredith Ginn collected the women's lone event win of the day in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:06.65. The time was nearly three seconds under second-place finisher Julia Durmer (2:09.06) of Emory. With the time, Ginn moves into 5th out of all Division II swimmers.
Ruth Hullete (2:16.37) and CJ Jensen (2:17.56) also earned points for the team with their times. Hullete also grabbed seven points in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:16.40.
Three Eagles earned points for C-N in the 100-yard breaststroke as Bethany McNabb claimed the seventh-best time of recorded swimmers at 1:11.81. Gillian Cline (1:11.82) and Claudia Carroll (1:11.85) fell in line just by fractions of a second.
Ginn responded with a third-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke grabbing 12 points with a time of 2:08.98. Regina Zipperer (2:13.97) and Ksenia Naydenova (2:14.15) also received points after rounding out the top-nine swimmers.
Postma, Culp, and Fomina all garnered points for C-N in the 100-yard freestyle. Postma's time of 53.90 collected a fourth-place spot with Culp (54.21) and Fomina (54.53) collecting 13 points between the two.
Day two will pick up tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m.
