CHARLOTTE, N.C.- Eagles ranked No. 2 following day one of the 2023 SAC Swimming Championships.
Carson-Newman swim ended day one of the SAC Men's and Women's Swimming Championships with a pair of first place finishes and a slew of spots on the podium. Concluding the first 10 events of the conference championships, the Eagles are ranked second. The women's team currently stands with 434 points, while the men secured 396 on night one.
"All in all, it was a good first day. It felt like we got off to a slow start, but once we got going, our races started to come together and we looked more like the team I was expecting to see," head coach for the swim team Ben Young said.
The Eagles took a first-place finish in the men's 200-yard medley relay with a finals time of 1:28.26. Arthur Gluzman, Asger Hartvig, Will Humphreys, and Ridge McCay participated in the event and secured an NCAA Qualifying Cut for the performance. In the women's 200-yard medley relay, Kyla Blakemore, Breanna Belcher, Lily Parr, and Kennadi King placed second with a finals time of 1:43.03.
Manon Compagner grabbed the Eagles' second win on the night with a 22.78-second 50-yard freestyle time. Compagner secured an NCAA "A" Cut in the race while also setting and securing the meet record in the event.
"I feel confident, especially after the first day, that these guys are ready. It is simply about executing at this point," Young said.
Arthur Gluzman placed second in the men's 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.19, and Ridge McCay followed shortly behind with a 20.31 finals time securing bronze in the event.
Rachel Peden finished second in the women's 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:10.32. Eli Poole secured a personal best on the men's side of the event in 9:48.78.
"We were proud of Eli Poole in the 1000-yard freestyle today, but in reality, our entire distance group crushed it," Young said.
Chrisman Rand participated in the 'A' Final for the women's 200-yard IM where she secured a fifth-place finish and personal best. Matt George placed fourth in the men's 200-yard IM 'A' Final in 1:51.00. Asger Hartvig (1:51.69) and Tyler Schehr (1:55.90) moved up into the 'B' Final for the event.
Both the men's (1:21.00) and women's (1:34.68) teams placed second in the 200-yard freestyle relay.
"It was a solid night, but still not necessarily where I wanted to be after day one. We've got a lot of swimming left, though, so we have plenty of opportunities for some more fast swimming. Our goal is to take advantage of those opportunities as we continue through the weekend," Young said.
Carson-Newman swim will continue to chase a conference title tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. as the second day of the SAC Men's and Women's Swimming Championships gets underway. Stay up to date on cneagles.com.
