CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The time has come for Carson-Newman swimming to prove what they are made of, as they hit the road for the 2022 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships. This year, the festivities take place from Charlotte, N.C. from Feb. 10 to Feb. 13. Carson-Newman coach, Jordan Taylor, and his staff are hoping the team takes this opportunity to springboard themselves to the NCAA Swimming and Diving National Championships in March.
C-N, ranked 9th on the women's side and 16th on the men's side, has not seen competition in an official event in just under two weeks when they traveled to take on national powerhouse, Tennessee, in Knoxville.
"This weekend will be a special occasion for the whole team and our staff as it has been a moment we've been prepping for it all season," Carson-Newman coach Jordan Taylor said. "I have told this team all year to only control what is in front of us because we never know what can happen the next day. So, we're happy to be able to compete and have this stage but we know it is something we won't take for granted."
The event will boast preliminary rounds in the morning which will serve to extract qualifiers for the evening on all four days.
Swimmers have to finish in the top-16 in their event to make it to either the 'A' or 'B' final events which consist of eight swimmers each. The 'A' final contains the top-eight and the 'B' final is raced amongst the bottom-eight. Swimmers can only score points for their team if they make it into one of these two groups in the final rounds.
Finishing within the top-6 in the 'A' final is rewarded with an All-Conference honor, signified with a medal. When it comes to relay races, teams must finish within the top-three in the finals to be named All-Conference which is also represented by a medal.
The last time Carson-Newman was in action came on January 29 as the Eagles went head-to-head with nationally ranked Tennessee for the first time in program history. Overall, the Volunteers took home the 144.5-104.5 victory on the women's side and swept the competition with a 136-106 decision going in their favor for the men's side of the pool.
"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," Taylor said "CONTINUE"
Tennessee would win 21 of the 30 events over C-N. 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.
Last year in the BMC Championships, Carson-Newman took home a pair of third-place finishes as nine swimmers qualified for the 2021 NCAA National Championships in the process. Carson-Newman men's team scored 1,366.5 points while the women posted an astounding 1,443 points. Queens and Wingate finished first and second, respectively.
"Conference is always something we strive to get to and have our best effort when we arrive. Sometimes it is nice for our team to see where they rank among the best, but to me, they are the best and can easily win this event yearly," Taylor said. "I expect the atmosphere to be loud and exciting which will make our events enticing and show how intense this conference can truly be."
There will be a livestream of the 2022 BMC Championshps provided by Queens (N.C.) University Athletics. This link can be seen at cneagles.com as well as attached at the top of this release.
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman swim team all across C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
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