KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Good ole Rocky Top lived up to its name as Carson-Newman swimming took on their biggest dual meet of the season Saturday. After celebrating their own Senior Day last weekend, C-N headed to Knoxville to take on the number six and 16th ranked Tennessee Volunteers Saturday from the Allan Jones Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee.
Overall, the Volunteers took home the 144.5-104.5 victory on the women's side and swept the competion with a 136-106 decision going in their favor for the men's side of the pool.
"The meet today went well overall since our goal was to have our team post their best dual meet times of the season and implement strong dual meeting racing strategies as best as possible," head coach Jordan Taylor said. "It was a lot of pressure to not only swim alongside some of the fastest swimmers we've seen, but definitely some of the fastest swimmers in NCAA. It was Senior Day for them since they also had parents, cheerleaders, Smokey the dog, which all made for a nerve wrecking experience for our team."
Tennessee would win 21 of the 30 events Saturday, as they now turn their attention to being the host for the 2022 SEC Championships in a couple weeks. However, there would be many bright spots from C-N's performance on Saturday as the program looked to continue their hot start to 2022.
One of the first major appearances made by C-N came from junior Rachel Peden (Boiling Springs, S.C.) taking home second in the women's 1000-yard freestyle with her time of 10:30.25. Peden would be followed up closely by C-N teammate Linda Ungerboeck (Vienna, Austria) who took third in the event with a time of 10:38.59.
However, Peden would submit her best event performance on Saturday in the women's 500-yard freestyle as she would take home the event win with her time of 5:07.04. This would lead the way for C-N as the other three finishers in the event would be C-N as well in the form of Linda Ungerboeck, Makayla Young, and Kennadi King.
Then, C-N continued their success in the men's 1000-yard freestyle as Jed Little (Anderson, S.C.) took home third place in a time of 16:09.98, which is the fifth fastest event time in CNSW history.
The same effort was seen in the men's 500-yard freestyle as C-N turned in the top three finishes, led by Matthew George coming in first with his time of 4:42.88. George would see teammates Jed Little and Adam Jones turn in the other finishing times for the event on Saturday.
"This meet was exactly what we were looking for as we near Conference in the coming weeks. It will be a similar atmosphere when we face top-tier programs like Queens and Wingate in order to battle for not only points and a title, but also to secure qualifying times for Nationals," Taylor said. "It was a really enjoyable day for our team and coaching staff. Honored to be asked to swim in this style of dual meet."
Sophomore Kyla Blakemore (Durban, South Africa) continued her hot start to 2022 as she was only seconds away from joining the CNSW top-five for the women's 100-yard backstroke. Her time of 56.57 not only secured Blakemore fifth place on Saturday, but almost toppled Mary Northcutt's 2020 time of 54.48 to be a top-five time.
Blakemore continued her Saturday success in the women's 200-yard backstroke. Her fifth-place time of 2:03.02 also places the South Africa native as the fifth fastest Eagle in the event.
In the women's 100-yard breaststroke, junior Kailee Morgan (Greenville, S.C.) cemented another top-five time in the event as she came in at 1:01.57, finishing third on Saturday and now replacing her own self with the fourth fastest event time.
The Eagles also won the women's 100-yard butterfly, thanks to Manon Compagner turning in a time of 58.26 ahead of three fellow Eagles. The men's 100-yard butterfly fell in similar matters ad Nicolas Lenuza came in first, ahead of three teammates, with his time of 49.07.
"Even though we did not win every event, we raced to be our best and continue preparing for bigger meets coming up," Taylor said. "I believe our team took a lot of confidence away from the meet today when they saw how much they can execute against someone like Tennessee and how these next few weeks come help prepare them to race again at a high level."
The Carson-Newman swim team next competes in the 2022 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships from Charlotte, N.C. from February 10 through February 13.
Be sure to keep up with the team across C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com
