Eagles cap off regular season with sweep of Catawba
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For five Carson-Newman swimmers, their last meet in McCown Pool ended with an Eagle’ 323-191 combined win over the Catawba Indians Saturday afternoon.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For five Carson-Newman swimmers, their last meet in McCown Pool ended with an Eagle' 323-191 combined win over the Catawba Indians Saturday afternoon.
The women's team swept the podium in all 14 events en route to the 183-76 victory and the men picked up the 140-115 win over the Indians in the Eagles tightest meet of the season.
With the wins over Catawba, the Carson-Newman swim program went undefeated during the 2014-15 season in dual meets.
"I was very pleased for each and every one of them. What they have meant to this program has been a tremendous amount," swim coach Paige McCord said of the five departing seniors. "I was pleased to see them, not only do well in the pool, but also be able to get their degrees, so I'm very pleased and very proud of them."
For the women, two school records fell in the record-breaking season as freshmen Lexy Raybon (Sarasota, Fla.) and Maggie Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.) swam the school's quickest times.
Raybon reset her school record in the 1000 Free with a time of 10:49.76. She had just set the record last Friday in the tri-meet with King and Emory & Henry.
Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.) set her second career individual school record in the 200 Breast with a time of 2:24.94. The Knoxville-native also holds the record in the 100 Breast.
The 200 Medley Relay time consisting of freshman Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.), Melhorn sophomore Natalie Burnett (Sevierville, Tenn.) and sophomore Samantha Starnes (Knoxville, Tenn.) took first-place in the event.
Stansberry and Melhorn then took the top two spots in the 200 Free with Stansberry winning in 1:55.44. Stansberry also won the 100 Free with a tiem of 53.09.
Burnett and sophomore Amanda Henderson (Bartlett, Tenn.) swept the top two spots in the 100 Back. Burnett picked up the win in 59.53 and Henderson followed closely behind in 1:00.02. Burnett also won the 100 Fly with a time of 59.61.
Henderson picked up a win of her own in the 200 Back. The Bartlett-native swam a 2:10.08 narrowly beating out a Catawba swimmer. Henderson also won the 400 Individual Medley. She swam a 4:45.12 and Fields finished second.
The Eagles got their third consecutive first and second place finishes in the 100 Breast. Melhorn won the event in 1:07.19 and sophomore Nancy Claire Smith (Franklin, Tenn.) followed behind one second later for second.
Smith won the 500 Free and Raybon followed up three seconds later for a Carson-Newman first and second place finish. Smith won the event in 5:13.84.
Another first and second sweep for Carson-Newman came in the 200 Fly where freshman Courtlyn Fields (Anderson, S.C.) placed first and Raybon came in second.
Starnes took first-place in the 50 Free Sprint with a time of 24.77.
The 400 Free Relay combination of Starnes, Smith, Henderson and Stansberry capped off the sweep for the women's team with a winning time of 3:36.41.
"I think the biggest thing is that all of the teams are individually getting ready now for conference, so being able to have some good races under our belt was very helpful and it also helped us as a coaching staff see where each of the athletes are at so we can best prepare for their taper," McCord said of her women's team's perforamce. "Very excited for the athletes to get the sweep. That's a huge accolade for them and we are ready to celebrate that for sure."
On the men's side, it was two seniors who led the way.
Senior Stephen Parsons (Auburn, Ala.) picked up a win on Senior Day in the 200 Free, winning in 1:43.20. Parsons also won the 400 Individual Medley with a Carson-Newman season-quickest time of 4:12.42.
Senior Ben Young (Morristown, Tenn.) swept the Sprint Freestyle events on his Senior Day by taking first in the 50 Free in 21.43. Sophomore Samuel Schechter (Knoxville, Tenn.) placed second. Young followed his performance in the 50 Free with a win in the 100 Free. Young swam a time of 47.62.
Freshman Paul Ungur (Baie Mara, Romania) swept the individual Back events. The Romanian won the 100 Back with a time of 48.88. Ungur also picked up a win in the 200 Back with a time of 1:51.18.
Tommy Bourgeois (Kingsport, Tenn.) won a tight race in the 200 Fly. The sophomore won with a time of 1:57.22.
"I think that any time you have a team that really wants something, when they are given a challenge like this to step up, then they can take it and take it as far as they want," McCord said of her men's team's gritty performance in getting the win over Catawba. "The main thing was that it wasn't the first place finishes, it was the second, third, fourth and fifth that really came through for us and that we needed."
The Eagles now wait for the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Meet in Charlotte, N.C. on February 11th through the 14th at Mecklenburg Aquatic Center.
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