October 17, 2014

Eagles drown Bears to pick up first win of the season

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman swim teams made it a clean sweep Friday night at Maddox Pool in its first meet of the season and setting three more school records in the process.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman swim teams made it a clean sweep Friday night at Maddox Pool in its first meet of the season and set three more school records in the process.

The Eagles knocked off the Lenior-Rhyne Bears with a combined score of 410-89 as the men's team won 212-34 and the women's team completed the sweep with a score of 198-55.

Fourteen different Carson-Newman swimmers won events at the first Bluegrass Mountain Conference meet of the season.

"Very, very pleased with how we did. We've done a lot of things to get ready, specifically we've made sure we are focused on conference so this was the first step for us on that long road," coach Paige McCord said. "I think this win specifically pointed out some areas where we are strong, specifically in our sprints and our middle distance."

The men picked up their biggest win in school history.

For the second straight meet, freshman Paul Ungur (Baie Mare, Romania) set two school records. In the 100 Backstroke, he set the school record with a time of 49.96 and he set the standard in the 100 Butterfly with a 50.58 time.

In the 200 Freestyle, the Eagles took a podium clean sweep with sophomore Tommy Bourgeois's (Kingsport, Tenn.) 1:47.32 taking the top spot. Bourgeois also won the 200 Butterfly.

Stephen Parsons (Auburn, Ala.) picked up two wins in the 200 Individual Medley and the 100 Freestyle. Kent Eldreth (Knoxville, Tenn.) picked up wins in the 100 and 200 Breaststroke.

"We are coming off a really short week with Fall Break so it's kind of hard to get up and race after you have had a few days off, but coming back up together we put in some good work," Parson said. "Getting up to swim 100 Free, 200 IM, some of my favorites, it's all about the mentality you get up behind the block."

Other winners on the men's side include: Drew Wheeler (Newnan, Ga.), Ben Young (Morristown, Tenn.), Davis Vincent (Loganville, Ga.) and Drew Rutledge (Lexington, S.C.).

The women also put their highest single-day total ever with 198 points.

Freshman Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.) took the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:56.17. C-N swept the 100 Backstroke and Stansberry took the honors with a time of 58.15.

Freshman Lexy Raybon (Sarasota, Fla.) destroyed the former school record in the 200 Butterfly by four seconds with a record of 2:06.82. She also won the 500 Freestyle with a time of 5:10.07, which was just one second off her school record.

Nancy Claire Smith (Franklin, Tenn.) won the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:09.20 and the 20 Breast with a time of 2:30.07. Amanda Henderson (Bartlett, Tenn.) picked up two wins in the 200 Backstroke and the 200 Individual Medley with a 2:14.46 time.

Samantha Starnes (Knoxville, Tenn.) won the 100 Freestyle with a time of 54.17.

Sophomore Natalie Burnett (Sevierville, Tenn.) won the 50 Freestyle with a time of 24.40 and the 100 Buttefly.

"We have been putting in a lot of hard practices lately and we have been working on our turns and our starts and I believe we really did well on that and really used that to our advantage. And we came out tonight ready to win and that's what we did," Burnett said.