BOCA RATON, FL – The Carson-Newman swim team defeated the Lynn University Fighting Knights 146.5 to 96.5 on the women's side and 153 to 89 on the men's end in their first official event of the spring season.
The Eagles, ranked 15th overall on the women's side and 20th on the men's lost six total events out of the 28 races in the competition.
The highlight of the afternoon came in the 100-yard individual medley which saw senior Caleb Howell (Easley, S.C.) take first place at 51.86, a new program record.
"Technically he had broken it before at the Blue vs. Orange Championships but this was the first time he had done it in an official NCAA event," Carson-Newman coach Jordan Taylor said. "It was the last individual race of the meet so it was a really nice way to wrap things up."
Senior Ivo Kunzle (Asuncion, Paraguay) won the 50 and 100-yard butterfly events and also participated in two winning relay events.
Sophomore Brandon Meier (Greeneville, S.C.) made his season debut at the event and won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.33.
"There were a lot of decent times, we were not expecting lifetime or season-best times but more so wanted to just fight hard for our positions," Taylor said.
The race took place outdoors under the sun in 80-degree temperatures. The beach-like weather may not have been conducive to the fastest race times.
"Racing outdoors isn't the best for swimming because of the sun and wind but overall we were pleased with our performance," Taylor said.
It was the first-ever dual meet between the two programs. The Eagles were without some of their international swimmers who spent a bit of extra time back home for the holidays.
The event kicked off the spring semester for C-N who will now look ahead to hosting Bluegrass Mountain Conference foe Mars Hill on Saturday Jan. 11 at 1 p.m. which will serve as Senior Night for the team.
After their final regular-season event against Emmanuel and SCAD in a tri-meet in Georgia, the team will then march to Charlotte, N.C. for the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships from Feb. 13 to Feb. 16.
The season then wraps up at the NCAA National Championships in Geneva, OH from Mar. 11 to Mar. 14. Carson-Newman will be looking to improve upon last year's showing which saw a program-record eight C-N swimmers attend the event.
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman swim team all season long on cneagles.com and on all of C-N's social media platforms.
