Eagles strong swims stunt Lions on Senior Day
The Carson-Newman swim team won every single event against Bluegrass Mountain Conference rival Mars Hill in a 319-82 dual-meet victory on Senior Day.
Jordan Taylor Recaps Mars Hill
Mary Northcutt Recaps Mars Hill
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman swim team won every single event against Bluegrass Mountain Conference rival Mars Hill in a 319-82 dual-meet victory on Senior Day.
"I talked to the team before we came out about really just coming together as a team and making sure this last meet for the seniors was special," Carson-Newman coach Jordan Taylor said. "The seniors really embraced the whole day. They performed well, some of them had their fastest dual-meet swims of the season which is great considering they were just as tired as the rest of the team but the emotional side of things can really help them get through."
The Eagles, ranked 15th in the country on the women's side and 17th on the men's saw eight seniors swim their final official races at Mossy Creek, four on each side.
The female swimmers honored were Mary Northcutt (Huntsville, Ala.), Allyson Metcalf (Jefferson City, Tenn.), Kelsey Robins (Gainesville, Ga.) and Regina Zipperer (Memphis, Tenn.).
On the men's side, Caleb Howell (Easley, S.C.), Ryland Darling (Arlington, Tenn.), Ivo Kunzle (Asuncion, Paraguay) and Paden Duke (Memphis, Tenn.) were all celebrated throughout the event.
Northcutt took first place in the 50-yard freestyle at 24.89 seconds while Robins was right behind her at 25.76.
"Me personally, it's always good to get in and race the 50 free almost every meet," Northcutt said. "Tweak little things, there's still some stuff I need to work on going into the next few weeks but overall it's gone pretty good."
Howell secured the top spot in the 100-yard butterfly at 50.24 and won the 100-yard breaststroke at 57.93.
"For me, the 100 breaststroke is just something that I'm routinely doing pretty much at every meet now," Howell said. "Just getting up off the blocks, getting ready for the 100 breast is just kind of normal for me at this point."
Howell believes the meet can be used to springboard the team's performance going forward.
"I think the meet this weekend was a good study guide for what we should do next week against Emmanuel," Howell said. "… We're going to try and see what we did better this week and what maybe we didn't do so great this week and make that better at Emmanuel."
Darling finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:00.37 while Kunzle took third.
Duke placed third in the 100-yard freestyle at a time of 50.15.
Zipperer saw a second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:23.76 and was a part of the winning 200-yard freestyle relay.
Metcalf finished second in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:09.57.
The team swam a mixed 200-yard medley relay at the end of the dual-meet consisting only of seniors as a way of paying homage to their college careers at C-N.
"It was a good way to finish," Taylor said. "All the seniors together for the very last race here at Carson-Newman. I hope that they remember tonight and I hope that it's been just a good overall experience for them. Not just tonight but through this senior year and also the four-year journey because they started when I started as a head coach so we've kind of been along that way together and I just hope that it's been memorable for them."
The C-N swim team next travels to Franklin Springs, Georgia for a tri-meet with BMC rivals Emmanuel and SCAD on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 1 p.m.
Be sure to keep up with the Carson-Newman swim team all across C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
