Eagles wrap up historic evening in Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Carson-Newman wrapped up the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships in historic fashion on Saturday afternoon, continuing its torrent pace that gave 13 Eagles at least one All-BMC swim during the week.
Saturday Final Results & Final Rankings
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Carson-Newman wrapped up the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships in historic fashion on Saturday afternoon, continuing its torrent pace that gave 13 Eagles at least one All-BMC swim during the week.
Senior Margaret Stansberry recorded a total of five All-Conference swims, leading the team. Elly Culp, Maggie Melhorn and Lisa Postma all gathered four, and Caleb Howell led all men's swimmers with three.
The C-N women's team finished the championships with a third-place finish with a total of 493 points trailing Wingate (756) in second.
The men's side, who held the third spot for the first three days was passed by Limestone College during the last day and ended the week fourth in the team rankings. The Saints edged the Eagles by one point, 863-862.
Queens, who has the top-ranked team in the men's and the No. 2 in the women's, ran away with the top spots for the conference title. Wingate earned second-place in both the men's and women's rankings.
"It was a great day overall," Coach Jordan Taylor exclaimed. "We had some great swims out there with some new lifetime bests. It was unfortunate that we were just one point off of third-place with the men."
Melhorn turned in a first-place time and set a new meet record and school record in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:13.52 on Saturday evening. The previous record was set by Queens Dasha Talanova during the 2017 Championships when she recorded a time of 2:14.11.
The Knoxville, Tenn. native's time is also a national A qualifying standard, which is an automatic qualifier to nationals.
Caleb Howell posted his third All-BMC swim of the week after registering a fourth-place finish in the men's 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:59.66. The time marks a new C-N school record in the event.
Casey Charles collected an All-BMC swim for the Eagles in the 1650 yard freestyle as his new season-best time of 16:03.17 was good enough for sixth-place. It was a remarkable swim for the freshman Charles whose previous high in the event was 16:24.15 entering the day.
Junior Jon Lancaster notched his second All-BMC swim of the week after earning a sixth-place time in the 200 yard backstroke earning a new lifetime-best 1:48.67.
Josh Terrell finished in the No. 8 spot in the 200 backstroke with a new lifetime-best swim at 2:02.33.
Ivo Kunzle posted the top-finish in the 'C' final of the 200 yard butterfly with a new lifetime-best time at 1:53.22.
Stansberry recorded her fourth All-BMC swim of the week and 16th in her career after a sixth-place finish in the 100 yard freestyle at 51.13 seconds. The time also posted a new season-best in the event for the senior.
Both Lexy Raybon and CJ Jensen earned top-six spots in the 200 yard butterfly on the final day of events to add All-BMC swims to their resumes. Raybon's new season-best time of 2:07.70 sat in fifth-place. Jensen earned her second All-BMC swim this week with a sixth-place time at 2:07.74.
Lisa Postma, Melhorn, Stansberry and Elly Culp put in a third-place time (3:26.07) in the 400 yard freestyle relay which added another All-Conference swim to each member of the group. All four swimmers collected at least four All-BMC swims throughout the week.
"I learned a lot this week and I know the athletes learned a lot over the four days," Coach Taylor mentioned. "We will continue to grow and continue to get stronger! I couldn't fault the team on their hard work over the championships. Next week will give us a chance to alter a few things for some people and I'm really excited for nationals!"
The team will now turn its attention to the Last Chance meet next weekend in Charlotte, N.C. where swimmers will have one final opportunity to push for a national qualifying time.
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