BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After having day one at the 2021 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships halted due to severe weather, Carson-Newman was back in the pool Thursday afternoon. The event started back with the finals for day one events, including senior CJ Jensen (Copenhagen, Denmark) swimming in the women's 200-yard individual medley (IM) 'A' final and sophomore Rachel Peden (Boiling Springs, S.C.) in the women's 1000-yard freestyle final.
For Jensen, she saw action among competitors from Queens (N.C.), University of Indy, Drury, West Florida, and Wingate in the women's 200-yard individual medley final. After turning in a time of 2:02.95 yesterday in prelims, Jensen bettered her time by almost a whole second as she came in at 2:01.46 Thursday afternoon. Jensen is now the holder of three of C-N's top five event times, but more importantly, can call herself an ALL-AMERICAN.
"Overall, a good morning session for the team after yesterday getting postponed. The team got up this morning and put yesterday behind them and start this day fresh. CJ Jensen moving up to sixth and a lifetime best means a lot," head coach Jordan Taylor said. "Meredith coming out and swimming her best morning swim in her career and Raphael slowly inching his way to the school record."
Along with Jensen competing individually, the Eagles also took to the pool for the women's 200-yard medley relay as one of the top 13 teams chosen for the event. Jensen, junior Meredith Ginn (Ocala, Fla.), sophomore Manon Compagner (Balkburg, The Netherlands), and sophomore Kailee Morgan (Greenville, S.C.) came away with a result of 1:42.33 which places them as seventh overall and give them the title of All-American.
Peden started the day off for C-N as the women's 1000-yard freestyle final kickstarted Thursday's activities. Peden gathered a time of 10:22.77, giving her the placement of 24th overall in the event and the fifth fastest time in C-N history.
Sophomore Raphael Lima (Sao Paulo, Brazil) swam a lifetime best of 19.90 to wrap up his time in the men's 50-yard freestyle Thursday morning. He broke his own placement as second fastest in the event for an Eagle and now holds three of the top five times. He now looks ahead to tonight in the men's 200-yard freestyle along with cheering on his teammates in tonight's timed finals.
Ginn came out of the gate swinging on Thursday after falling one position from the women's 200-yard IM finals. However, Ginn did find herself as the 'B' finals winner before being a part of the All-American women's 200-yard freestyle relay. Ginn is back in action tonight in the women's 400-yard individual medley.
"Tonight will be all timed finals, which means you only have one chance to make your mark and claim a title," Taylor said. "So, we'll go rest up and get prepared in hopes of securing a couple more titles this evening."
Carson-Newman returns to action from the Birmingham Crossplex tonight starting at 8 p.m. ET for finals of day two events. Be sure to keep up with all things Carson-Newman swimming via cneagles.com and all social media accounts.
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