October 2, 2021

Eagles throttle competition in King Invitational

KINGSPORT, TN – After two days in Kingsport, Carson-Newman swim sees both men's and women's claim dominating wins as the Eagles wrapped up their first meet of the 2021-22 season.

"My big thing was hoping to have the Blue v Orange to blow off some cobwebs but it was the first meet of the season and the goal was to get everyone racing and we got that done this weekend," head coach Jordan Taylor said. "Overall, the team went out there and raced hard and took on advice from coaches, learned from what they could do wrong and focus on the cup half-full mentality to improve upon their performances."

Out of 34 total events, Carson-Newman won 20 total events, including every relay the invitational had to offer. The Eagles also saw the debut of some newcomers to the program and were able to see how quickly their impact would be made in the pool.

There were many highlights along the two-day event for Carson-Newman as many strong returners made their immediate impacts known for the season, while some new faces to Mossy Creek decided to introduce themselves to the competition in Kingsport.

The first two events: men's and women's 200-yard freestyle relay went in favor of Carson-Newman. The team of Debora Xavier (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Summer Osborne (Clearwater, Fla.), Anna Tudor (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), and Antonia Sanint (Bogota, Colombia) led the Eagles to claim the women's side victory as the Eagles 'B' team for the event in a time of 1:37.17.

The Eagles also saw Natalia Amano (Brazil), Kyla Blakemore (Durban, South Africa), Kate Salsbury (Knoxville, Tenn.), and Lily Parr claim a second-place finish in the event when they came in at 1:38.75.

Meanwhile on the men's side of the relay, the Eagles swept the top three as the 'A', 'B', and 'C' teams finished top three, respectively. Carson-Newman team 'A' consisted of newcomer Igor Brentas Dantas (Indaiatuba, Brazil) joining forces with Nikita Puzevich, Brandon Meier (Greeneville, S.C.), and Nicolas Lenuza (Spain) as the quartet finished with a time of 1:23.63 to claim first-place.

Closely behind was Carson-Newman team 'B' which was newcomers Logan Ridge McCay and Hobson Stelling (Memphis, Tenn.) joining forces with returners Carson Jones (Southaven, Miss.) and Kevin Meuwissen (Limburg, The Netherlands) to finish in 1:24.05 and gather C-N the second place.

Finally, team 'C' for the Eagles saw a quartet of Eagles make their debut as Colin Tindall (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), Josiah Carver (Sarasota, Fla.), Aaron Bauer (Stapleton, Ala.), and Felix Lund (Herlev, Denmark) swam to a third-place finish in a time of 1:27.49.

Making another appearance in the women's 500-yard freestyle, junior Rachel Peden (Boiling Springs, S.C.) continued her dominance in the event with a time of 5:10.60, sufficient enough for a second-place finish. The men's 500-yard freestyle was won by senior Matthew George (Manchester, England) as he came in 4:45.55 and saw teammate sophomore Jed Little (Anderson, S.C.) finish in second with his time of 4:47.02.

"This meet lets us know where we stand for the 2021-22 season and where we can go the rest of the season," Taylor said. "Races like this will help us see where we can focus and fine-tune the details to better ourselves and overall, it was a very positive meet."

Then, it was onto the 200-yard individual medley where C-N saw the women's top two finishes by Meredith Ginn (Ocala, Fla.) in 2:07.13 and CJ Jensen (Copenhagen, Denmark) in 2:09.65. The men's 200-yard IM was able to garner three top-five times for the Eagles. Lenuza came in second with a time of 1:56.06 followed by senior Joey Clemmer (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) with his time of 1:58.56. Making his first impact as an Eagle, freshman Asger Hartvig (Hoersholm, Denmark) pitted a fourth-place finish in a time of 1:59.82.

In the women's 400-yard IM, freshman Sophia Bains (Monument, Colo.) gathered third place with a time of 4:48.03. The men's side saw freshman Eli Poole (Spanish Fort, Ala.) finish top-five after swimming a time of 4:24.51.

Sophomore Kailee Morgan (Greeneville, S.C.) started her season off as she won the women's 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:03.12, right ahead of Belcher who came in at 1:05.29. On the men's side, the Eagles also won the event thanks to the efforts of Asger Hartvig as he swam a time of 58.49. Sophomore teammate Thanos Diamantidis (Greece) captured third with a time of 58.91 in the event.

"I didn't look at the points for the teams until the very end and for us to see the performances all around highlights our depth all-around and we have some incredible athletes," Taylor said. "Even some of the 'C' teams were beating their peers, so there is competition between our program so athletes will step up and move upon their standings. I know we had a talented team but our depth was showcased this weekend."

To end their time in Kingsport, the Eagles gathered victories in both the men's and women's 400-yard freestyle relays as the respective 'A' teams for C-N came away on top. The Eagles saw Compagner, Osborne, sophomore Kennadi King (Atlanta, Ga.), and Ginn swim a time of 3:32.97 which won the women's event.

On the men's side, the team of Brentas Dantas, Puzevich, senior Matthew George (Manchester, England), and Lenuza swam a time of 3:04.37 which was almost four entire seconds faster than second-place Carson-Newman 'B' team.

At the end of the two-day event, Carson-Newman dominated its competition on the scoreboard as the women finished with 1264 points. The Eagles left no doubt as the second-place team, UNC Pembroke, finished the event 781 points behind as they came in with 483 total team points. The last time the Eagles competed in Kingsport to start the 2019 season, they finished the event with 1169, 623.5 points ahead of second-place Catawba.

Meanwhile for the men's side, Carson-Newman came in first place as well, gathering 1366.5 points over the two-day event in Kingsport. Coming in almost 1,000 points (973.5) behind was Milligan University collecting second-place honors. In 2019, the men's side for C-N finished with 1085 points as they finished 613.5 points ahead of the second-place Catawba College Indians.

C-N will continue their action as they look ahead to the sixth annual Blue v. Orange intrasquad meet next Friday, October 8. The event usually kicks off the fall season for the Eagles and is always full of competitive action in and out of the pool by both sides. Action will start next Friday at 5:30 p.m. from the MSAC in Jefferson City, Tenn.

"A lot of the freshman stepped up and showed what they can do for the team in their first time competing this weekend as well as some of the transfers we have," Taylor said. "Overall, I saw the athletes who competed at Nationals last year stay consistent with what they have done but it was the athletes who know what they can do and make Nationals, they stepped up and performed to higher expectations than what they thought. I think, although we are months away, this team will see a lot of athletes competing for Nationals when the time comes, and I know the season will better prepare them for the stage."

Be sure to keep up with C-N swim all season long on Carson-Newman's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.