FRANKLIN SPRINGS, Ga. – The Carson-Newman swim team took down the Savannah College of Art and Design and Emmanuel on the women's side and defeated SCAD on the men's end in a tri-meet in the Peach State.
The C-N men defeated SCAD 133-128 while the women beat the Bees 184-75. The Eagles women beat Emmanuel 198-64 while the men lost to the Lions 131.5-130.5. Carson-Newman won the event based on its overall combined score.
"The girls just dominated pretty much every race," Carson-Newman coach Jordan Taylor said. "They beat both the teams really comfortably. Combined, we won the meet comfortably, so we'll take it."
The men lost to Emmanuel by a point in a competition that saw C-N ruled disqualified in the 200-yard medley relay, costing the team seven points.
"It was a bit disappointing to get beat by a point," Taylor said.
Senior Mary Northcutt (Huntsville, Ala.) won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.70. She also took first place in the 100-yard freestyle at 52.40.
"Other than the University of Tennessee Invitational, that was the fastest meet of her life," Taylor said. "For her to have the fastest meet she's had in her four-year career in her last dual-meet [format] race, that was special."
Junior CJ Jensen (Copenhagen, Denmark) won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:08.32 and the 200-yard butterfly at a time of 2:04.45.
Freshman Linda Ungerboeck (Vienna, Austria) took home first place in the 500-yard freestyle and the 1000-yard freestyle as well.
Freshman Manon Compagner (Balkbrug, Netherlands) finished first in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:54.48 and she took second place in the 100-yard butterfly. She finished behind fellow Eagle Laurel Sankowski (Indian Trail, N.C.) who won the race at 58.67.
For the men, senior Caleb Howell (Easley, S.C.) won the 200-yard individual medley in 1:51.92 and the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:02.95.
Newcomer to the program Raphael de Paiva performed well in his C-N debut, taking second in the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 45.85. He also finished third in the 200-yard freestyle at 1:40.97.
"He swam really well," Taylor said. "We're excited to see what he can do as we get toward conference."
Sophomore Andrei Ungur (Romania) placed first in the 100-yard backstroke in 48.77 and was second in the 200-yard backstroke.
"His times were very strong," Taylor said. "These were some of the same times that he recorded last year at conference when he won so that was great to see."
The team now has three and a half weeks to prepare for the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships on Feb. 13 through Feb. 16 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"Now it's time to sharpen everybody up," Taylor said. "They're going to rest, stay health, get plenty of sleep and focus on recovery over the next three weeks. We will make the practices easier as we go forward and the practice on the week of the competition will be super easy."
After a successful regular season that saw C-N flex its muscle in terms of depth, Taylor now must decide who will represent the Eagles in relays at the Conference Championships.
"I've now got some hard decisions as to who's going to be on the relays. That's a good problem to have. We have so many people swimming fast that it is going to be quite the competition to secure spots."
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman swim team on C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
