2015 BMC Championships: Day 2 Up/Mid/Downs

Bluegrass Mountain Conference – Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 11th – Saturday, February 14th, 2015, Prelims 10am/Finals 6pm (Saturday 5pm)
• Location: Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center, Charlotte, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champions: Wingate (Women – 2nd straight), Wingate (Men – 7th straight) (results)
• Live Results: Available via Meet Mobile
• Live Video (Finals only): Available
• Championship Central

Patri Castro-Ortega, the 22-year-old Queens freshman from Madrid, Spain, rocked the first event on Day Two of the Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships with a new meet record of 4:53.33 in the 500 free. Castro-Ortega bettered the old meet mark of 4:56.53 set by SCAD’s Stephanie McNichol in 2009. Wingate’s Julie Wessler, who broke the 1000 free record last night, qualified second in 4:57.94. The two should have a great battle in finals – this just may be the event of the night. Also qualifying for tonight’s A final were Lillian Gordy of Queens (4:59.56), her teammates Meridith Boudreaux (5:00.22) and Nikki Johnston (5:00.98), Limestone’s Lovisa Nyman (5:00.48) and Rachel Hickey (5:02.43), and Carson-Newman’s Nancy Claire Smith (5:03.75).

Some of the more notable swims in prelims belonged to Nyman (wth a-6.4 drop from her seed time to make the “A” final), Anna Barnes of Catawba (-6.4 to make “B” final), Alice Oggionni of SCAD (-10.2 to make “C” final), Katie Zientarski of Carson-Newman (-7.8 to make “C”), and West Virginia Wesleyan’s Lea Kryvenchuk (-6.7) and Kimmy Culver (-6.6).

Nick Arakelian of Queens went 4:22.65 in the men’s race, just squeaking past Iaroslav Denysenko of Wingate’s 4:22.68 record from 2012. Teammate Alex Menke, winner of last night’s 1000, qualified second in 4:29.54. Andrew Greenhalgh of Johns Hopkins (4:29.76), Ossian Arvidsson (4:32.26), Oystein Fjeldberg (4:33.55), and Leif-Henning Kluever (4:34.13) of Wingate, Douglas Trigo (4:34.38) of Limestone, and SCAD’s Joel Ax (4:34.69) will all challenge Arakelian tonight.

Big drops on the men’s side came from Fjeldberg (-6.8), Theo Zatterstrom of Catawba (-8.4 to make “B” final), Josh Hughes of Hopkins (-8.2 to make “B”), Jackson Kojima of Queens (-10.8 to make “B”), Luke Johnson of Carson-Newman (-24), Nick Hiatt of Davis & Elkins (-26.3), David Scott of SCAD (-12.1), and Patrick King of Pfeiffer (-14.2).

In the women’s 200 IM, Caroline Arakelian lowered her own meet record with a 2:01.35 prelims effort that puts her in lane 4 for tonight’s finals. She will be joined by Wingate’s Sofia Petrenko (2:02.87), Anna Wisniewski of JHU (2:04.32), Linda Baron of Queens (2:05.75), Olga Kosheleva (2:06.93) from Wingate, JHU’s Kaitlin Jones (2:07.10), Jessika Weiss of Wingate (2:07.45), and Carson-Newman’s Amanda Henderson (2:07.96). There were a number of big drops in prelims this morning; Abby Brown of JHU (-4 to make “C” final) and Sara Schmidt of Fairmont (-8.9 to make “C”) were among the most impressive.

Matt Josa of Queens was the top qualifier in the men’s 200 IM with 1:48.15, about 1.4 seconds off the meet record. Also going after that mark in tonight’s final will be Josa’s fellow Royals Ben Taylor (1:48.85), Devyn Hughes (1:49.56), Nate Dacruz (1:50.50), and Felipe Oliveira (1:50.72), as well as Wingate’s David Collum (1:49.32), Inigo Alarcia of Pfeiffer (1:50.50), and Stephen Parsons of Carson-Newman (1:50.84). Samuel Knapp of Wingate dropped -7.9 to make the “B” final, while Ludvig Strand of Limestone (-5.6 ) and Davis Vincent of Carson-Newman (-6.5) significantly bettered their seed times to gain entry into the “C” final. Robin Siegel (-6.7), Christian Temporiti of SCAD (-7.6), Zayd Othman of Davis & Elkins (-12.6), and Jeff McNeill of West Virginia Wesleyan (-5.1) also had great prelims outings.

Wingate’s Ana Fish broke the meet record in the 50 free and qualified first for tonight’s final. Her 23.19 was .05 under Ana Bogdanovski’s mark set at last year’s meet. JHU’s Bogdanovski qualified second in 23.30. Both women anchored their respective 200 medley relays last night with impressive times: Fish was 22.41, while Bogdanovski went 22.55. Tonight’s matchup should be exciting.

Other “A” finalists will be Limestone’s Emily Reh (23.33), Alexandra Marshall (23.37), Kristin Diemer (23.57), and Shane Knight (23.60) of Queens, Wingate’s Armony Dumur (23.40), and Carson-Newman’s Natalie Burnett (23.46). Burnett and Knight both dropped -.72 to make the “A” final. Davis & Elkins’ Brooke Bielecki improved her seed time by .85 to make the “B” final, while Sean McGrath of Hopkins went -1.4 faster to make the “C” final. Other big swims came from Marylee Gowdy of West Virginia Wesleyan (-.83), Madeline Cowart of Carson-Newman (-.62), Danielle Small of Limestone (-.51), Janessa Reno (-.51), Ellie Michael (-.81) and Stephanie Borum (-.80) of Converse, Landa Magliaro of Fairmont (-.85), Erin McCann of Lenoir-Rhyne (-.90), Eva Miller (-.69) and Rachel Anderson (-.90) of Pfeiffer, and Alle Ragland (-.71) and Austyn Sigler (-1.56) of SCAD.

Tobias Feigl of Limestone led the way in the men’s 50 free with 20.20 in prelims. The other “A” finalists tonight will be Nic Eriksson (20.36), Austin Sumrall (20.53), and Zach Phelps (20.55) of Queens, and a trio from Carson-Newman: Sam Schechter (20.42), Paul Ungur (20.43), and Ben Young (20.52).

Two Wingate Bulldogs, Lucas Cuadros and Mehdi Zeraidi, dropped -.69 and made the “B” final. Teammates Brendan Ryan (-.98) and Roman Kanyuka (-.65), SCAD’s Joel Salomonnson (-.78), Rasmus Salomonnson (-.37) and Eli Guillou (-.44), West Virginia Wesleyan’s Adam Brumley (-.55), and Pfeiffer’s Robert Brewton (-1.06) and Sam Stevenson (-1.21) also stood out.

Results can be found here

Up/Mid/Down Women:

Up/Mid/Down Men: