Lone home meet of season pits Eagles against Tornado
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman men’s and women’s swim teams get set for their final dual meet of the regular season when they take on the King Tornado on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. at the MSAC pool.
Video: Jordan Taylor Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman men's and women's swim teams get set for their final dual meet of the regular season when they take on the King Tornado on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. at the MSAC pool.
C-N returns to competition for the first time since the UT Mid-Season Invitational which took place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 2 where the team faced the likes of top D1 talent in Knoxville, Tenn. The team held their own collecting a number of personal bests and school records of the course of three days.
"It's been a long time but we put in a lot of good work before Christmas and met the team in Florida and did some training down there," Coach Jordan Taylor stated. "Knowing conference is right around the corner has motivated them and they've kept up the energy in practices with some competition pretty regularly. The team is excited to get up and race."
The Eagles will also honor 11 of its senior swimmers on Friday in its first home meet since Nov. 4 of 2016 when King also visited Mossy Creek. C-N came away with a resounding 166-37 win.
"They arrived around the same days that I did," Taylor mentioned. "Didn't really know what to expect but I didn't realize what kind of relationships I would develop over the years with them. It's all worked out really well and they've made my time enjoyable."
Limestone and Cumberlands also made the trip to Jefferson City earlier that same season as the Eagles topped the Saints 185-77 and the Patriots 327-83.
The Eagles are 8-1 all-time in home meets since its inception in 2013-14 with its lone loss coming at the hands of Limestone in the team's first ever dual meet, 157-105. C-N is 2-0 all-time in dual meets against King.
"They're a smaller team so they might not be the same volume of competition as we've had but they have a number of strong athletes who came here last year and broke a number of school records," Taylor added.
King's head coach James Graves spent the previous four years at Carson-Newman before being named to the Tornado's staff in August helping produce 12 All-Americans.
Both the men's and women's swim teams fell in the latest TYR / College Swimming Coaches Association of America Division II national poll, however, each remained inside the top-20.
The C-N women hold the No. 17 position while the men sit at No. 19. The final end of season national swim poll is slated for next month.
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