JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman Swimming is back in the national rankings after the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America announced their national rankings on Monday.
On the women's side of the pool, the Eagles have been ranked second in all of Division II women's swimming while the men's team for C-N is ranked third compared to the rest of Division II men's swimming programs. Both programs see the highest national rankings under head coach Jordan Taylor since he took over the program.
For the Division II women's swimming national rankings, the top five sees fellow Bluegrass Mountain Conference competitor, Queens (N.C.), take the first overall spot with 656.15 points. The Eagles come in at second with 625.55 points, right ahead of third-ranked Colorado Mesa who was awarded 619.15 points along with their ranking. Wrapping up the top five for Division II women's swimming are CSU-East Bay in fourth with 571.20 points and Delta State with 566.90 and fifth place ranking.
For all of Division II men's swimming, the top spot is once again owned by fellow BMC member, Queens (N.C.), as the Royals hold 707.10 points thus far. In second, Colorado Mesa has collected 653.60 points in the season. The Eagles see a ranking of third and 622.30 points in the early parts of the season. Wrapping up the top five for Division II men's swimming are Lewis with 589.85 points in fourth and Lindenwood in fifth with 580.18 points.
"Obviously it's really early on in the season and a lot of teams had a smaller meet to compete in," head coach Jordan Taylor said. "Obviously the national rankings thus far show the depth of our team as it is the biggest team we've had so far. The ranking for both sides is a result of our domination this past weekend."
The ranking comes off the back of a strong first meet for the Eagles at the King Invitational this past weekend. After the two-day event concluded, both Eagles programs claimed overall victory as the women's team finished with 1264 points, 781 points ahead of second-place UNC Pembroke. Meanwhile, the men's team gathered 1366.5 points in Kingsport to win overall and finish 973.5 points ahead of second-place Milligan.
In Kingsport, the Eagles took part in 34 total events over the two-day span. Of the 34 total events, Carson-Newman won 20 events. including every relay event. The event also gave coach Taylor and his staff the chance to see the debut of some impressive newcomers to Mossy Creek as well as the strong line of returners to the Eagles program.
There were many highlights along the two-day event for Carson-Newman as many strong returners made their immediate impacts known for the season, while some new faces to Mossy Creek decided to introduce themselves to the competition in Kingsport.
Most notably was how the Eagles started off the King Invitational in the women's and men's 200-yard freestyle relay. The women kicked off action as C-N gathered the top two finishes as team 'B' of Debora Xavier (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Summer Osborne (Clearwater, Fla.), Anna Tudor (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), and Antonia Sanint (Bogota, Colombia) led the Eagles to claim the women's victory in a time of 1:37.17. The Eagles also saw Natalia Amano (Brazil), Kyla Blakemore (Durban, South Africa), Kate Salsbury (Knoxville, Tenn.), and Lily Parr claim a second-place finish in the event when they came in at 1:38.75.
Meanwhile on the men's side of the relay, the Eagles swept the top three as the 'A', 'B', and 'C' teams finished top three, respectively. Carson-Newman team 'A' consisted of newcomer Igor Brentas Dantas (Indaiatuba, Brazil) joining forces with Nikita Puzevich, Brandon Meier (Greeneville, S.C.), and Nicolas Lenuza (Spain) as the quartet finished with a time of 1:23.63 to claim first-place.
Closely behind was Carson-Newman team 'B' which was newcomers Logan Ridge McCay and Hobson Stelling (Memphis, Tenn.) joining forces with returners Carson Jones (Southaven, Miss.) and Kevin Meuwissen (Limburg, The Netherlands) to finish in 1:24.05 and gather C-N the second place. Finally, team 'C' for the Eagles saw a quartet of Eagles make their debut as Colin Tindall (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), Josiah Carver (Sarasota, Fla.), Aaron Bauer (Stapleton, Ala.), and Felix Lund (Herlev, Denmark) swam to a third-place finish in a time of 1:27.49.
"Our goal is to continue swimming faster every week. Our goal will be to sustain this ranking as much as possible. We want to be in the top-10 nationally as we progress into the season," Taylor said. "We set the bar high and I think maintaining the level of competition to garner such rankings is a challenge our team is ready and willing to take on as we continue"
C-N will continue to build their resume and maintain a high spot in national rankings as their next event takes place this Friday. The Eagles will take part in the sixth annual Blue v. Orange meet which starts on Friday at 5:30 p.m. from the MSAC in Jefferson City, Tenn.
