KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Carson-Newman swimming was back in action from the Volunteer State Friday as they faced off with the Milligan Buffaloes. The meet, originally intended to take place in Jefferson City, would commence from Knoxville, Tenn. as the Eagles and Buffaloes took to the pool of the Allan Jones Aquatic Center near the campus of the University of Tennessee.
Friday was all about the Eagles as the program took a 328-193 combined victory as they swept both men's and women's side of competition. For the women's side of the pool, it was Carson-Newman winning 171-89 while the men took home a 157-104 victory. This is the second straight victory for the Eagles over the Buffaloes after they defeated Milligan 381-141 to start the home season last spring.
"We had a lot of athletes competing in different events, so it was nice to see how our teammates did in events they normally don't compete in. We were so glad that Tennessee allowed us to use their pool because it allows us to get some prior practice as we near the UT invite in a couple weeks," Carson-Newman senior Matthew George said. "For me personally, that was my best meet this season and I think a lot of the other swimmers would say the same."
The Eagles were dominant once the whistle finally blew to start action as they won the first six events as they went on to win 21 out of the 28 total events from the Allan Johnson Aquatic Center in Knoxville. The Eagles saw victories in every relay on Friday as well as a pair of individual victories from Kailee Morgan (Greenville, S.C.), Meredith Ginn (Ocala, Fla.), and CJ Jensen (Copenhagen, Denmark) for the women's team. For the men's team, it was evenly spread out in terms of who stepped up, but Nikita Puzevich (Belarus) made sure to leave his mark.
Meredith Ginn first saw victory in the women's 50-yard freestyle as she was the victor in a time of 23.82. The senior then continued her impressive showing on Friday with a victory in the women's 200-yard individual medley. With her time of 2:06.74, Ginn wrapped up her individual events with two victories.
To start off and wrap up her time from the pool, Ginn was a member of the two winning women's relays for C-N. To begin action, Ginn was part of the winning women's 200-yard medley relay squad with a time of 1:45.36 alongside Kyla Blakemore (Durban, South Africa), Kailee Morgan (Greenville, S.C.), and Manon Compagner (Balkburg, The Netherlands). The Ocala, Florida native then concluded her time in the pool as part of the winning women's 200-yard freestyle relay alongside Debora Xavier (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Manon Compagner, and Antonia Sanint (Bogota, Colombia) with their time of 1:36.37.
Kailee Morgan continued her impressive outings for the women's breaststroke event as she won both the 100-yard and 200-yard events on Friday. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Morgan took the overall win with a time of 1:03.37. A couple events later, she added to her event wins as she took the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:21.34. This is now the second straight event this season where Morgan has won the 100-yard breaststroke after she claimed the event during the Wingate meet last weekend.
Finally, for the women, another standout was CJ Jensen. Jensen started her individual event wins with a victory in the women's 200-yard butterfly. As she came in with a time of 2:07.57, Jensen solidified her spot as someone to watch out for in the event as the season progresses. The Denmark native also claimed the win in the women's 100-yard butterfly as she swam a winning time of 57.66.
"For us, it was about going out there and responding after the performance in the Wingate meet. We knew it was going to be a quick pool atmosphere at UT so we had to take advantage of it while we had the chance," Morgan said. "We swam pretty well and I know the team and coaches are mostly happy to get back on the winning side of action."
The men's team for Carson-Newman looked and showed out as a full team effort to claim the victory as no male athlete claimed more than one individual win as part of the 53-point victory. One shining athlete for the Eagles was Nikita Puzevich who claimed the men's 50-yard freestyle while also being part of both winning relays for the team.
To start off his Friday of action, Puzevich joined forces with Thanos Diamanditis (Athens, Greece), Igor Dantas (Indaiatuba, Brazil), and Nicolas Lenuza (Spain) to take the men's 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:32.79. Puzevich went on to win the men's 50-yard freestyle in a time of 20.48 to claim his sole individual win of the afternoon. Finally, it was Puzevich, Dantas, Lenuza, and Hobson Stelling (Memphis, Tenn.) finishing the event with a win in the men's 200-yard freestyle relay in a time of 1:23.50.
Diamanditis, Lenuza, and Dantas also took home individual event wins. As the lone Eagle competing in the event, it was Thanos Diamanditis taking home the men's 200-yard breaststroke win in a time of 2:08.39. Nicolas Lenuza would capture the men's 100-yard butterfly in a time of 48.85. Finally, Dantas was the winner of the men's 500-yard freestyle as he swam a time of 4:41.52.
Meanwhile, for the Buffaloes, Tyler Cates stood out for the women's side while Stephen Gilbert highlighted their men's team efforts. Cates won the women's 100-yard backstroke in a time of 57.62 as well as the women's 200-yard backstroke in a time of 2:04.97. For Gilbert, it would be event wins in the men's 100-yard backstroke (51.40) and 200-yard backstroke (1:53.70) to highlight his day in the pool.
"So, we'll head to Atlanta next weekend before we're hoping to be back inside the MSAC against Lees-McRae which both events will allow for more preparation as we near the UT invitational," George said. "It was good to be back out in the pool and as a team, we'll start tapering and preparing for what is coming up which starts next weekend in the Emory Invite."
The Carson-Newman swim team next competes as part of the Emory Invite on November 5 and 6 from the Madeline Jude Brown Aquatic Center in Atlanta, Ga. Be sure to keep up with the team across C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
