Richmond, VA - The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) has released its latest Division II Swimming & Diving Poll for the month of December. The University of Indianapolis men remain first in the polls for the third consecutive time. Queens University of Charlotte and UIndy women are tied for number one this month.
On the women's side of the pool, the Eagles have been ranked sixth in all of Division II women's swimming while the men's team for C-N is tied for sixteenth compared to the rest of Division II men's swimming programs.
For the Division II women's swimming national rankings, the top five sees fellow Bluegrass Mountain Conference competitor, Queens (N.C.), tied for the first overall spot alongside the University of Indianapolis with 147 points. Fellow BMC member, Wingate, wraps up the CSCAA top five for December as they have gathered 121 points this season.
For all of Division II men's swimming, the top spot is once again owned by national powerhouse UIndy who hold 148 points this season. Closely behind UIndy men's is C-N's fellow BMC foe, Queens (N.C.) who are second with 146 points. Wingate is eighth on the men's side for the latest CSCAA rankings with 103 points to be the second-highest BMC program in men's swimming.
"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, "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 one of the strongest fall season showings since the program's inception in 2013. The Eagles wrapped up their fall as participants in the annual UT Invitational from the University of Tennessee on November 18-20.
"There were so many positives to take away from the meet and with all the lifetime best, season bests and school records I feel the team is confident and excited moving forward to the next half of the season," Taylor said.
During their time in Knoxville, three school records were broken while multiple athletes (both men's and women's) set new career and personal bests in various events.
After swimming a prelims time of 19.99, Igor Dantas claimed a finals time of 19.72 in the men's 50-yard freestyle to set a new school record and fit the qualification for 'B' standards of Nationals later this season.
"It was a school record by Igor as well as a lifetime best and qualifies him for Nationals as he is currently ranked number one in the country for the event which is awesome," head coach Jordan Taylor said
On the men's side of the 100-yard freestyle, Igor Dants swam the third-fastest program time with his prelims time of 43.33. He quickly topped his prelim performance with another school record, breaking Raphael Lima's 2021 record, with a new record time of 43.14 and a fifth-place overall finish for the event.
As he finished in the event's top five, Dantas not only gathered another program record for his name but was able to defeat Division I opponents from South Carolina, Alabama, and Virginia in the process.
After it was teammate Igor Dantas achieving the feat a day earlier, sophomore Nicolas Lenuza went out and broke the second program record in as many days for the Eagles with his efforts in the men's 100-yard butterfly. After only being 0.02 away from breaking the record in the prelims, Lenuza overtook Andrei Ungur's 2020 time of 47.71 as he swam a finals time of 47.65 to finish 11th and call himself the new program record holder in the event.
In the women's 100-yard freestyle prelims, junior Manon Compagner (Balkburg, The Netherlands) swam a time of 50.68. This is now the fifth-fastest event time in program history and positions Compagner with three of the event's top five times for an Eagle. Companger went on to swim the third-fastest 100-yard butterfly time with a finals time of 54.48.
The Eagles piled on the top five program times as junior Kailee Morgan (Greenville, S.C.) added her name to the board in the women's 200-yard breaststroke with the second-fastest event time of 2:15.23. Morgan also collected the third-fastest time for the women's 100-yard breaststroke with her finals time, a career best, of 1:01.27.
"Again, it's another boost to team moral and a motivator for future meets to see if we can climb even higher," Taylor said.
C-N will get back into action as they welcome in the Emory & Henry Wasps to the MSAC for a January 15 meet as the spring season gets underway for the Eagles.
