Moving on up - women's C-N Swim at No. 9, men at No. 19 in latest national poll
November 14, 2017

Moving on up - women's C-N Swim at No. 9, men at No. 19 in latest national poll

Norfolk, Va.  – Men’s and women’s swim teams at Carson-Newman both rank inside the top-25 in the latest TYR / College Swimming Coaches Association of America Division II Polls released this morning. The men’s squad moved up five spots to No. 19 and the women moved inside the top-10 to No. 9.

CSCAA National Poll

Norfolk, Va.  – Men's and women's swim teams at Carson-Newman both rank inside the top-25 in the latest TYR / College Swimming Coaches Association of America Division II Polls released this morning. The men's squad moved up five spots to No. 19 and the women moved inside the top-10 to No. 9.

The No. 9 ranking for the women's team is the highest national ranking ever in the CSCAA poll for the Eagles.

"Our great performances showing our depth and strength on the women's side have shot us up the rankings a lot and this is definitely where we target to be for this year," Coach Jordan Taylor stated. "There's a lot of fast swimming still to come from our girls and we hope to push ourselves up a little further. I'm really pleased for them."

Both teams ranked inside the top-25 in the preseason poll released on Oct. 17 with the men at No. 24 and the women at No. 18.

Despite each team jumping multiple spots in the latest national rankings, the Eagles have swam in just one quad meet since the preseason poll was released. However, the team's performance at the Nova Invitational days before the first poll, played an important factor.

"The coaches' poll is based on how well you do against other teams in head-to-head competition and we showed how potent we can be beating some of the top teams in the nation," Taylor mentioned.

The women's rankings presented a number of teams who battled it out with Carson-Newman at the NSU Shark Invitational, including Nova Southeastern who held their position at No. 3. Wingate dropped from fifth-place down to No. 17.

C-N also leaped West Florida who fell back from 9 to No. 11. Indianapolis jumped all the way up to No. 4 from 16.

The Eagles claimed second-place in the NSU Invitational from Oct. 13-14, finishing behind first-place finisher Nova Southeastern, topping the likes of Wingate, West Florida and Indianapolis.

A late addition to the quad meet featuring Mars Hill, Milligan and Warren Wilson, C-N claimed a first-place finish on Nov. 4 with Maggie Melhorn, Lisa Postma, CJ Jensen and Margaret Stansberry all collecting wins in individual events.

The men's team collected a third-place finish in the NSU Shark Invitational behind Wingate, who was fifth in the poll, and Indianapolis, who jumped to third.

Nova Southeastern, who finished behind the Eagles in the invitational, came in at No. 7. 

Three of the top six individual swimmers in the invitational were from C-N: Marcelo Figueiredo, Caleb Howell and Jon Lancaster.

The men's side also collected a first-place finish in the quad meet in Milligan, winning 10 of the 11 events in which they competed in.

"I'm impressed with the way our guys have started the season as well and we aren't even at full strength yet," Taylor added. "Our top-end athletes are still moving things forward and to still see the improvement in the national ranking is great. We haven't even had a full 18-man roster at some meets and I'm expecting us to move up a few more spots as the year progresses."

You can view the full poll results from CSCAA here.

The CSCAA is the oldest organization of college coaches in America. It is a professional organization of college swimming and diving coaches dedicated to serving and providing leadership for the advancement of the sport of swimming & diving at the collegiate level. The poll aims to measure the top teams in head-to-head competition.

The next event for the teams will take place at the University of Tennessee Mid-Season Invitational from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2.

"We're preparing for this meet and we'll show some big improvements for it," Taylor stated. "Hopefully we can show that we are a top-15 program for both sides in a couple weeks' time."