JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn.- Carson-Newman swim is set to honor its senior class prior to racing the Mars Hill Lions this Friday, Jan. 12 at 6:00 p.m. in the Maddox Student Activity Center.
Friday night's meet is Carson-Newman swim's senior night. The festivities are set to begin prior to the beginning of the meet at 5:50 p.m.
"With it being senior night, it gives our seniors one last opportunity to race in their home pool," Young said. "Our goal is to make sure we send them off in style and remind them how much fun it is to race here at C-N. These seniors have given this program so much, and words literally cannot describe how thankful I am for them".
Eight seniors from the women's swim team will be honored tomorrow evening, including Kyla Blakemore, Mandi Chadwell, Kylie Cutcher, Kennadi King, Chrisman Rand, Makayla Young, Grace Pessemier, and Dehlia Pessemier. On the men's team, C-N swim will recognize seniors Benaiah McDowell, Carson Jones, Jed Little, and Ethan Lawless.
The Eagles will race the Lions for the second time this season on Friday, Jan. 12 at 6:00 p.m. Carson-Newman swim traveled to Mars Hill, N.C. in late Octobor to race the Lions and bested the team 256-149. After a month-long hiatus, the Eagles will host the Lions this weekend for the second face-off of the season.
"We had an incredible winter training," head swim coach Ben Young said. "We were really able to piece together a solid training cycle down in Florida. It helped to have the opportunity to train some long course for a week, and of course, it didn't hurt that we were outside in the Florida sun for the majority of it. More than anything, it allowed us to change gears a bit, being away from campus and in the same pool day in and day out. The challenge for everyone leaving Florida was to not let all of the hard training we did go to waste. So far, it looks like the majority of them have accepted that challenge and stayed in the water".
During the Eagles' last meeting with the Lions, the women's team contributed 148 points to the overall team score, winning 10 of 11 events over the course of the evening. A few standout performances included Rand with her first-place finish in the women's 200-yard IM in 2:13.66. Lily Parr snagged gold in the 100-yard freestyle in 54.61. Sarah Covington won the 100-yard backstroke with a final time of 57.70. In the women's 100-yard breaststroke, Breanna Belcher finished first in 1:05.16.
"Mars Hill is always fun to race, and they gave us some great competition on the men's side when we raced them at their pool," Young said.
The men's team added 108 points to the Eagles' combined score, winning five events throughout the night. Asger Hartvig won the men's 200-yard IM in 1:57.91, and Jakov Igrec grabbed second in 2:00.96. Hartvig went on to win the 100-yard breastroke in 58.44. Daniel Ribeiro finished first in the 100-yard freestyle, and Tyler Schehr won gold in the 100-yard backstroke (51.86). In the men's 500-yard freestyle, Alonso Castro finished first in 4:42.91.
"The mindset going into Friday is simply to make sure that we start getting into the championship mindset," Young said. "Conference is now less than five weeks away, which means it is time to buckle down, clean up the details, and focus on swimming fast. I tell the swimmers every season that it goes by fast. It seems like yesterday we were having our first classroom session prior to starting week 1 of our cycle, and now we are five weeks out from traveling to Greensboro, N.C. In the end, it's all about completing the cycle and getting them fully prepared to swim fast".
Carson-Newman swim will race Mars Hill at home this Friday, Jan. 12 at 6:00 p.m. Senior night festivities will begin at 5:50 p.m. Come out to support and stay up to date on cneagles.com.
