GREENSBORO, N.C.- Carson-Newman swim left the first day of the 2024 SAC Men's & Women's Swimming Championships this evening, Feb. 14 with relay wins and top-5 finishes.
Carson-Newman swim is in third place after the first day of the SAC Swimming Championships. The women's swim team has 351 points after the first day of competition, following shortly behind Wingate with 540 points and Catawba with 384. The men accumulated 305 points after today's swims. Wingate is currently in first with 481, and Catawba is in second with 367.
"Overall, we had a good night," head coach Ben Young said. "It's definitely going to be a pretty tight meet. We knew that going in, but it was most certainly solidified tonight. We had a lot of personal bests and season bests, though, and we dropped a ton of time, so that was great to see".
Carson-Newman women's swim won gold in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Chrisman Rand, Kennadi King, Antonia Sanint, and Lily Parr contributed to the Eagles' final time of 1:33.14. On the men's side of the event, C-N placed second in 1:21.34. Daniel Ribeiro, Daniel de Oliveira, Tyler Schehr, and Arthur Gluzman each swam a leg.
"Both of our women's relays got national cuts. Those were some massive swims from them, and I'm proud of how they put four legs together today," Young said. "Our men were just outside those cuts, but we had some guys that stepped up in big ways and swam really well. I'm happy with what I saw from all of our relays".
The Eagles also grabbed silver in both the men's and women's 200-yard medley relay during the second session of the day. Parr, Rand, Breanna Belcher, and Kyla Blakemore finished in 1:42.29 for the women. Schehr, de Oliveira, Benaiah McDowell, and Asger Hartvig locked down a finals time of 1:29.67.
"I'd have to say that the swim of the day on the women's side was definitely Chrisman's 200 IM," Young said. "That was followed closely by Kennadi's 50 free, though. Both of them had incredible swims, and they performed really well".
Individually, Rand placed third in the women's 200-yard IM and secured a Division II "B" cut in the event. Rand finished the swim in 2:04.93. Hartvig placed fourth in the men's 200 IM in 1:51.30.
King finished fourth in the women's 50-yard freestyle with a 23.52-second DII "B" cut time. Gluzman also finished fourth in the event. He secured a "B" cut in 20.29 seconds.
"On the men's side, Jakov just swam lights out this morning in the 1,000 free. It was an incredible swim, and he has put himself in a good position to improve throughout this week," Young said.
In the women's 1,000-yard freestyle, Makayla Young placed sixth in 10:35.65. Jakov Igrec finished eighth for the men in 9:43.04.
"The challenge for the team is to continue to understand that our character drives us," Young said. "It's about being willing to get up and go and make sure that we are consistent with what we bring to the team. Swimming is a very individual sport, but at Carson-Newman, we care about what it means to swim for a team and swim for our school. That is the message this week".
Carson-Newman swim will be back in action tomorrow morning, Feb. 15 at 10:00 a.m. for the second day of the 2024 SAC Swimming Championships. Stay up to date on cneagles.com.
