INDIANAPOLIS – Eight Carson-Newman swimmers earned Honorable Mention All-American honors Wednesday night during the first night of the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships at the IU Natatorium in Indianapolis.

The men's and women's 200 Medley Relay teams each garnered the award. These are the first such awards in the program's history.

"Significant improvement on splits for tonight's relays. Coming off a double taper, the athlete are performing well," coach Paige McCord said.

Freshman Lexy Raybon (Sarasota, Fla.) finished 16^th in the nation in the 1000 Free. The Carson-Newman distance swimmer finished the race in 10:19.37, just seven seconds off her school record.

Freshman Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.) placed 34^th in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:08.28, which was three seconds out of the top-16.

Sophomore Samantha Starnes (Knoxville, Tenn.) placed 45^th in the 50 Free. She swam the event in 24.11 seconds.

Sophomore Natalie Burnett (Sevierville, Tenn.) competed in the Championship heat of the 50 Free, but she was disqualified after what was a deemed a false start on the starting block.

The women's 200 Medley Relay complied of Stansberry, Burnett, Starnes and freshman Maggie Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.) finished as the 13^th-quickest relay team in the nation. The relay swam the finals in 1:45.22.

All four men that traveled to the Hoosier State competed Wednesday afternoon in the 50 Free. Sophomore Samuel Schechter (Knoxville, Tenn.) was the highest-placed Eagle as he swam a 20.61. Senior Ben Young (Morristown, Tenn.) finished 35^th with a time of 20.67. Freshman Paul Ungur (Baia Mare, Romania) placed 40^th in 20.73 seconds.

Senior Stephen Parsons (Auburn, Ala.) finished 28^th in the Individual Medley with a time of 1:51.62. Parsons's times is just eight-tenths of a second of his own school record.  Parsons finished 47^th in the 50 Free with a sprint swim of 20.85.

Along with the Honorable Mention All-American honors, the men's 200 Medley Relay team finished the 2015 season as the quickest relay team in the Bluegrass Mountain Conference after swimming the relay in 1:30.64.

The Eagles finished of conference foes Wingate, Queens and Limestone.

After the first day, the men's team is 18^th in the team rankings and the women are 22^nd.

Carson-Newman will return to the pool on Thursday for the second day of the NCAA Championships. Eagles that are scheduled to swim include: Burnett and Ungur in the 100 Fly, Parsons, Young, Stansberry and Melhorn in the 200 Free, the women's 400 Medley Relay and the men's and women's 200 Free Relay. Full results will be available on cneagles.com.

-CN-