Program-best seven Eagles punch ticket to Greensboro
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee announced today the swimmers who qualified for the 2018 NCAA Division II Men and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, as Carson-Newman will send a new program record of seven individual swimmers to nationals. The previous record of five came in 2017.
Men's Swimmers Invited by Team
Men's Official Qualification List
Women's Swimmers Invited by Team
Women's Official Qualification List
Women's Relay Eligibility List
INDIANAPOLIS, IN – The NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee announced today the swimmers who qualified for the 2018 NCAA Division II Men and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, as Carson-Newman will send a new program record of seven individual swimmers to nationals. The previous record of five came in 2017.
The championships will be held March 14-17 in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Qualification Lists below show the invited swimmers with the events in which they achieved an automatically qualifying "A" cut standard or an invited "B" cut standard above the dotted "invited" line and their optional event "B" cut times below the line.
The Invited Swimmers by Team reports below show each student-athlete who was selected by team, and lists the events in which they were selected.
The Relay Eligibility List indicates those institutions that may enter a relay for competition at the championships.
Four women and three men will represent Carson-Newman in 12 individual events through the four-day period.
This marks the program's third trip to nationals in its history, with C-N's previous visit coming in 2015, when they totaled nine participants.
Maggie Melhorn and Margaret Stansberry will make their third appearance at nationals after both competed last year and in 2015.
Melhorn, a Knoxville, Tenn. native, will compete in two individual events during the week, both in the 100 and 200 yard breaststroke. The senior has the fifth best time in the nation in the 100 breast with a time of 1:01.67, but was one step better in the 200 coming in at 2:13.52 for fourth-best.
Her senior teammate in Stansberry will also compete in two events during the four-day meet garnering national qualifying times in the 200 freestyle and the 100 freestyle.
The native of Knoxville, Tenn. posted the sixth-best time in the 200 with a time of 1:48.88. Her time in the 100 freestyle sat tied with a teammate for 12th in the nation at 50.51 seconds.
Lisa Postma turned in a national qualifying time in the 100 freestyle tying Stansberry in the event for 12th in the nation at 50.51 seconds. It marks the first individual event for the Leiden, Holland native in nationals. Postma was selected as an alternate in 2017 if any athletes withdrew from an event.
Freshman CJ Jensen rounds out the list of women's Eagles with a trip to nationals. The Copenhagen, Denmark native turned in the 22nd best time in the nation in the 200 butterfly after turning in a time of 2:04.01. The top-26 times in women's swimming earn trips to Indy.
On the men's side, Caleb Howell will compete in a team-high three events during the trip to Indianapolis. Howell qualified in the 400 and 200 individual medley races as well as the 200 yard breaststroke.
A product from Easley, S.C., the sophomore Howell's best time came in the 200 IM with the eighth-best time in the nation at 1:47.98.
Both times in the 400 IM and 200 breaststroke came in ranked 13th in all of D2 at 3:54.29 and 1:59.66 respectively. The invite will mark his first trip to nationals individually.
Junior Jon Lancaster will make his first appearance at nationals as well, after missing out on his first invite in 2017 by fractions of a second.
The Ringgold, Ga. swimmer is set to compete in the 200 individual medley as his time of 1:48.86 was good enough for 18th in the nation. On the men's side, the top-21 times in each event receive an invite to nationals.
Marcelo Figueiredo grabbed the final spot in the 500 yard freestyle after turning in 21st-best time of 4:29.52. It marks his first-career opportunity for the junior in an individual event at nationals.
The C-N women's swim team is relay eligible in five events this year. The 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle, 200 medley, and the 400 medley. The team is top-13 in the nation in three of the five events. Junior Elly Culp and sophomore Mary Northcutt will also head to nationals to compete in relays along with the other four individuals.
For the men's team, they qualified just for the 800 freestyle relay. Nikola Tadic will make the trip with the team to compete in the relay at nationals.
"I'm delighted for all the first time individual qualifiers with CJ, Marcelo, Caleb, Jon and Lisa," Coach Jordan Taylor said. "It's great to continue each year to take more and more swimmers to nationals as individual qualifiers. Excited to see what the 10 swimmers can achieve as a whole in numerous individual and relay swims. Heartbroken for those who missed out by fractions of a second but we will be back and stronger than ever."
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