JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman swim teams now have their path set for a return trip to the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships.
A season after the first five All-Americans in school history were named, the Eagles will welcome 23 news athletes to Mossy Creek this season and a difficult schedule await the teams.
"I think we have really strong pieces together right now in play as well as our really strong relays. It should be a very, very exciting year for us," McCord said.
The Eagles kick off their season with the Triple Splash, the program's annual intrasquad meet, in Maddox Pool on Sept. 24th at 6 p.m. Last season, the two programs combined to break five school records at the meet.
Two consecutive dual meets kick off the program's regular season with trips to Kentucky and South Carolina in store. Carson-Newman starts the year on Oct. 10th with a 1 p.m. meeting with the University of the Cumberlands. In 2014, the Eagles swept the combined meet by a score of 276-125. Three weeks later, on Halloween Night, C-N ventures to the Palmetto State for a contest with the Limestone Saints; last season's meet was cancelled between the two programs due to unsafe traveling conditions. The Saints men's team placed third at the 2015 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships and the women finished in fifth.
"We are going to get out quickly and have some competitive events against Cumberlands and go head-to-head against Limestone," McCord said. "It will be really key for us to see where our athletes are at at the beginning of the season."
For the first time in the program's history, the Eagles will not be swimming at the Fall Frenzy hosted by Wingate; instead, Carson-Newman will swim at the Georgia Tech Mid-Season Invitational in Atlanta. Multiple prestigious Division I schools including Florida, Florida State, Florida Atlantic, Vanderbilt, Arkansas as well as many others were in attendence for the Yellow Jackets' meet.
"First off, the Fall Frenzy was shifted weekends due to pool renovations, and secondly, the level of competition is a little bit higher. We will be racing against the University of Alabama, University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina," McCord said. "We will have some strong competition there. Additionally, we have some fans down in the Georgia area so it is a fun area for us to get down and have some good prelim/final swims."
The Eagles close out the fall slate of the schedule with Great Lakes Valley Conference foe, Bellarmine. Last season, the Knights' men finished eighth, while the women finished sixth in the GLVC. Former Division II national champion Drury also swims in the GLVC.
After the annual Christmas break training trip in Cocoa Beach, Fla., the Eagles kick off the new year with the King /Emory & Henry tri-meet in Kingsport, Tenn. A trip to Salisbury, N.C. for a meet with the Catawba Indians will round out the regular season. The Indians and Wasps of Emory & Henry are both members of the BMC.
The 2016 edition of the BMC Championships will be held on Feb. 10th through the 13th in Rock Hill, S.C. The Eagles will face the reigning Division II national champions, the Queens (N.C.) Royals, and Wingate as well as nine other programs.
"Our team is to place in the top-three (at conference), for sure. To do that, I think we have to be deep in the final eight," McCord said. "Several people need to make shifts up and for that to happen, people need to make critical technique changes and also a lot of anaerobic power development and aerobic capacity development that is essential to us. "
The Triple Splash kicks off the season on Sept. 24th at 6 p.m. in Maddox Pool.
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