Queens M/W, Barton Men, Emmanuel Women Emerge Victorious at BMC/CC

Bluegrass Mountain Conference/ Conference Carolinas Championships – Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 6-Saturday, February 9, 2019
• Location: Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center – Charlotte, NC
• Defending Champions: BMC – Queens women (3x); Queens men (3x)/CC – Barton women (results)
• Full results
• Championship Central
• CC teams: Barton (M&W). Converse College (W), Chowan (M&W), King (M&W), Emmanuel (M&W), Lees-McRae (M&W)
• BMC teams: Carson Newman (M&W), Lenoir-Rhyne College (M&W), Queens University (M&W), Salem University (M&W), Savannah College of A&D (M&W), Wingate University (M&W). Catawba College (M&W), Mars Hill (M&W)

BMC

Queens University of Charlotte went home with their 5th straight men’s and women’ conference titles at the 2019 Bluegrass Mountain Championships in Charlotte.

Francesca Bains kicked things off for the Royals with a 16:35.89 victory over teammate Sarah Reamy (16:42.19) in the 1650 free. Wingate freshman Kate Agger came in 3rd in 16:54.92. Luke Erwee of Queens won the 1650 free in 15:23.33; teammate Mohamed Hegazy was runner-up in 15:33.10.

Queens freshman Bobbi Gichard broke the BMC record in the 200 back, winning with 1:55.09. Wingate freshman Anna Miram swam to a 1:57.27 for second. Alen Mosic and Baptiste Leger made it a 1-2 Royals finish in the men’s 200 back with 1:43.93 and 1:45.51, respectively.

Polina Lapshina broke her second meet record of the day in the 100 free. After her 48.88 prelims swim, which took down Patri Castro Ortega’s record of 49.19, Lapshina went 48.79 in finals to win by 1.7 seconds and lower the meet record to within .35 of the NCAA Division II mark of 48.44.

Marius Kusch continued his record-breaking streak with a 42.29 in the 100 free. He took a 1.1-second chunk out of the BMC meet record and lowered his own NCAA D2 record by .15. Kusch had been 42.42 to win last year’s NCAA D2 title.

Shelly Prayson of Queens edged Anne-Sofie Nissen of Wingate, 2:14.60 to 2:15.21, in the 200 breast. Wingate’s Giacomo Viazzo took home the Bulldogs’ only win of the day, going 1:56.45 to claim victory in the men’s 200 breast.

Carson-Newman’s Cecilie Jensen pulled off a big upset in the 200 fly. Her season-best 2:04.60 was the 4th-fastest time of the morning. Swimming out of lane 6, she threw down a 2:03.20 to win by .60 over Queens’ Georgia DaCruz. Alex Kunert destroyed the BMC record in the 200 fly with his winning 1:42.62. In prelims he had beaten Kusch’s 2017 meet record of 1:44.96 with 1:44.13. In finals he dropped another 1.5 seconds to win by 6.2 seconds over Wingate’s Nazarii Kosylo (1:48.82) and Niklas Martin (1:48.86).

Queens women snuck in under the meet record in the final event, the 400 free relay, going 3:20.35 to take 10/100 off the previous mark. Lapshina lowered her meet record in the 100 free with her leadoff split of 48.64. She was followed by Kyrie Dobson (50.67), Josephina Lorda (50.70), and Shelly Prayson (50.34). The Royals broke the final meet record of the night with a 2:53.39 in the men’s event, coming in .07 under the old meet record. Mosic (43.26), Brody Heck (43.64), Kunert (42.11), and Dima Sydorchenko (44.38) contributed to the effort.

CC

Emmanuel College won the women’s team title while Barton College took home the men’s title at Conference Carolinas Championships.

Juana Mafla of Emmanuel scored the first victory, taking the 1650 in 18:15.69. Her teammate Stanislas Raczynski won the men’s event in 15:40.63, destroying the Conference Carolinas record of 16:35.96, set by Barton’s Robert Zamorano in 2018.

Barton’s Kleanza Cathers erased the CC meet mark in the 200 back, going 2:06.95 for the win. The record had been set last year by Chowan’s Julia Chmielewska with 2:07.49. Tegan Brown, also from Barton, was the men’s 200 back winner in 1:50.01. Brown eclipsed the meet record of 1:50.09, set in 2018 by Limestone’s Jake Minasi.

Nicola Macdonald of Barton was victorious in the 100 free with 51.94. She lowered her own meet record of 52.33 set in prelims this morning. Emmanuel’s Karolina Ostojska moved from 4th in prelims to 2nd in finals, touching in 52.54 ahead of Barton’s Alayna Moore (52.85) and Addy Nemitz (53.58). Alex Sobers and Thiago Rosa of Emmanuel both came to the wall under the meet record time of 44.16 that Rosa established this morning in prelims. Sobers lowered the mark to 43.65 while Rosa went 44.01. They both would have scored in the top-5 of the BMC meet.

Julia Simioni of Emmanuel won the 200 breast in 2:25.03 over AnnMarie Spiker of Chowan (2:28.34). Joao Santos, also of Emmanuel, earned the men’s title with 2:02.76. King’s Jabari Ramsey and Emmanuel’s Theo Courteaux tied for 2nd with 2:05.68.

Natalie Hayes from Emmanuel destroyed the CC meet record in the 200 fly for the second time today. After going 2:06.38 in prelims to erase Sarah Russell of Converse’s 2:09.40 meet mark, Hayes won the final with 2:05.68. Nicola Mead of King was runner-up in 2:10.31 while Russell placed 3rd in 2:11.55. Simen Vik of King cruised to a 1:51.44 win of the men’s race over Barton’s Jonathan York (1:54.09).

Barton’s Macdonald (52.48), Nemitz (53.47), Moore (53.09), and Cathers (53.70) finished the meet with a CC record in the 4×100 free, going 3:32.74. Likewise, Emmanuel closed out the men’s meet with a 400 free record of 2:57.90 with legs from Santos (44.49), Rosa (43.59), Rafael Mendes (46.13), and Sobers (43.69).

Women – Final Team Rankings

Men – Final Team Rankings