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
It’s clear there won’t be many records left standing when the 2015 Bluegrass Mountain Conference championships come to a close tomorrow. For the third day in a row, nearly all the records fell in an onslaught of fast swimming in Charlotte.
The first meet record to go was the women’s 200 free relay. Both Queens and Wingate’s foursomes came in under the old standard of 1:32.90. Alexandra Marshall (23.39), Patri Castro Ortega (22.68), Shane Knight (22.76), and Kristin Diemer (23.19) got the win and their names in the record book with their combined 1:32.02. Behind them were Wingate’s Ana Fish (23.15), Sofia Petrenko (23.08), Caitlin Coughlin (23.72), and Armony Dumur (22.59) with 1:32.54. Third place went to Carson-Newman in 1:34.17.
The Queens men established a new meet record in their 200 free relay as well. Nic Eriksson (20.13), Ben Taylor (19.63), Austin Sumrall (19.79), and Hayden Kosater (19.84) went 1:19.39 to lower the old mark by .32. Carson-Newman came in second with 1:20.66; Wingate was third in 1:21.35.
Queens freshman Patri Castro Ortega, who crushed the 500 free record on Thursday, was back with more magic on Friday with a 5.8-second improvement over the old meet record in the 400 IM. Swimming against teammate and meet recordholder Caroline Arakelian, who also came in under her old mark, Castro Ortega went 4:13.59 and just missed the NCAA D2 record of 4:13.20, set by Arakelian in December. Arakelian was second in 4:19.29, while Johns Hopkins’ Kaitlin Jones took third (4:28.68).
Samantha Fox of JHU (4:31.08), Carson-Newman’s Nancy Claire Smith (4:31.90), Rachel Hickey of Limestone (4:32.89), Rebecca Justus of SCAD (4:34.13), and Kellie Gervas from Wingate (4:35.31) made up the rest of the “A” final.
Freshman Nick Arakelian of Queens had already broke the meet record in the 400 IM during prelims. In finals he came back and dropped another 3.65 seconds to establish both a BMC meet record and an NCAA D2 record with 3:46.15. Arakelian was under the national record by 1.5 seconds. And it’s only February.
Ossian Arvidsson of Wingate was second in 3:57.18; he was followed by Finn Furstenwerth from Catawba (3:58.15), Tyler Prescott of SCAD (4:00.31), David Collum (4:00.78) and Oystein Fjeldberg (4:01.25) of Wingate, Trevor Jones of Queens (4:03.05), and Kyle Otazu of JHU (4:05.15).
The women’s 100 fly was an exciting race featuring the current record-holder from Queens, Hannah Peiffer, Natalie Burnett of Carson-Newman who broke the meet record in the 50 free on Thursday, and Wingate’s Armony Dumur. All three came in ahead of the meet-record time of 53.95: Burnett went 53.62 for the win, then came Peiffer (53.64) and Dumur (53.82). The rest of the final included Alexandra Marshall of Queens (54.82), Anna Wisniewski from Johns Hopkins (55.19), Wingate’s Jasmine Arzadon (56.50), and JHU’s Abby Brown (56.54) and Shirley Chan (56.56).
Keeping the streak going was Queens’ Matt Josa, who broke the BMC record with his 45.78 100 fly. Josa just missed his own NCAA D2 record. Also coming in under the meet mark was Catawba’s Sebastian Holmberg with 46.51. Felipe Oliveira took third with 48.47. He was followed by Mark Wilson of JHU (49.42), Austin Sumrall from Queens (49.61), Greg Kogut of JHU (49.62), Queens’ Evante Gibson (49.86), and Limestone’s Emil Moller (50.04).
Next, Ana Bogdanovski of Johns Hopkins lowered her own meet record in the 200 free with 1:47.69; she was a half-second off the NCAA D2 record and almost two seconds ahead of the field. Sofia Petrenko of Wingate placed second with 1:49.36. Past champion Lillian Gordy of Queens took third in 1:49.64. McKenzie Stevens of Queens (1:50.04), Margaret Stansberry from Carson-Newman (1:50.12), Queens’ Linda Baron (1:51.42), Limestone’s Emily Reh (1:51.64), and Shane Knight of Queens (1:53.73) rounded out the podium.
Jerome Heidrich of Wingate set the 200 free meet mark in prelims with 1:37.32. He led teammate Leif-Henning Kluever in an exciting 1-2 finish in finals, just missing his earlier record. Heidrich touched in 1:37.36, while Kluever was runner-up in 1:37.78. Ben Taylor from Queens went 1:38.35, just ahead of Wingate’s Issam Zeraidi (1:38.73). Theo Zatterstrom of Catawba (1:39.04), Stephen Parsons from Carson-Newman (1:39.47), Queens’ Hayden Kosater (1:39.51), and Ben Young of Carson-Newman (1:41.38) made up the rest of the final.
The next event gave the spectators another exciting Wingate 1-2 finish, as Olga Kosheleva (1:03.22) and Jessika Weiss (1:03.27) battled for the women’s 100 breast title. They were both less than 2/10 off the meet mark. JHU’s Gwynnie LaMastra came in just behind the leaders in 1:03.61. The rest of the heat included Maggie Melhorn of Carson-Newman (1:05.14), Maggie Storm of JHU (1:05.35), Jess Parmenter (1:05.68) and Emma Durante (1:05.81) from Queens, and Pilar Shimizu from JHU (1:06.27).
Nic Eriksson (53.45) of Queens and Tobias Feigl (53.49) of Limestone put on an exciting show in the men’s 100 breast. Eriksson was out first but Feigl’s second 50 nearly got him the victory. Anton Jansson of Limestone was third in 54.55. Pfeiffer’s Inigo Alarcia (54.57), Wingate’s Roman Kanyuka (54.68), and Will Hicks (54.74) and Devyn Hughes (55.50) of Queens rounded out the championship final.
Carson-Newman’s Burnett got her second (unexpected) victory of the night racing against defending champion and BMC record-holder in the 100 back, Peiffer of Queens. Burnett had a great start and strong underwaters that put her way in front after the first 50. Peiffer had the stronger second half but Burnett was too far in front; she ended up with the win in 54.34, while Peiffer came in second with 54.76.
After the leaders came Viktoriya Arkhipova of Wingate (56.10), Margaret Stansberry (from Carson-Newman (56.30), Wingate’s Rita Koryukova (56.37), Queens’ Diemer (56.47), Natalia Rincon from JHU (57.1), and Kristina Kosloski (57.57) of Queens.
In the men’s 100 back, Carson-Newman’s Paul Ungur knocked another 8/10 off the meet record he had set in the morning session, 48.31. In finals, Ungur kept Catawba’s Holmberg at bay to win 47.54-47.85; both were under the previous meet record. John Suter (48.80) and Zach Phelps (48.85) were third and fourth, while Pfeiffer’s Dima Turkin (49.48), Wingate’s Brendan Ryan (49.62), Karl Hegwein of SCAD (50.05), and Nate Dacruz of Queens (50.94) made up the rest of the final.
There were no huge suprises in the scoring, as Queens and Wingate continued their ride at the top. Full results are available here.
Women
- Queens University of Charlotte 1057
- Wingate University 842
- Johns Hopkins University 766
- Carson-Newman University 589
- Limestone Swimming 525
- Scad 368
- Catawba College 284
- Pfeiffer University 212
- West Virginia Wesleyan College 200
- Converse College 170
Men
- Queens University of Charlotte 1071
- Wingate University 763.5
- Limestone Swimming 669.5
- Johns Hopkins University 536
- Carson-Newman University 477
- Catawba College 416
- Scad 333
- Fairmont State University 278
- Pfeiffer University 260
- Lenoir Rhyne University 197
- Davis & Elkins College 172
- West Virginia Wesleyan College 157