Liberty Welcomes UNC Asheville for Home-Opening Weekend

Courtesy: Liberty Athletics

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Liberty (3-1) will compete in its first home meet of the season this weekend, hosting CCSA opponent UNC Asheville (1-3) on Friday and Saturday at Liberty Natatorium.

The meet will begin on Friday at 6 p.m., and Saturday’s session will start at 11 a.m. The meet will feature one combined score for all 20 events.

How to Follow the Lady Flames

This weekend’s meet will have live results running both online and through the meetmobile app.

Liberty’s CCSA Award Winners this Season

So. Abigail Egolf-Jensen – CCSA Women’s Diver of the Week (Oct. 15)

Team Notes

• The Lady Flames split their swimmers and divers, with the swimmers defeating Campbell 131.5-125.5 on Oct. 11 and the divers competing at UNCW on the following day.

• Liberty opens the home portion of its schedule on Friday. The Lady Flames are 10-0 all-time in dual meets at the Liberty Natatorium, having gone 5-0 at home in both 2017-18 and 2018-19. All-time, Liberty is 19-2 in home dual meets, winning its last 18 home meets, beginning Oct. 28, 2011 against Radford.

• Liberty earned its 100th win in program history to open this season, defeating St. Bonaventure 269.5-82.5 at the Penn State Sprint Fest on Oct. 4.

• The Lady Flames are 26-1 in their last 27 dual meets and 27-3 in their last 30.

• Liberty has won each of its last 16 dual meets against CCSA opponents, beginning Jan. 14, 2017 at UNC Asheville.

• 10th-year Head Coach Jake Shellenberger has led the Lady Flames from the program’s inception. He has posted a 102-31 dual-meet record, being named CCSA Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year three times (2012, 2014, 2019). His teams have gone 54-14 all-time against CCSA competition.

• Liberty won its second-ever CCSA title in 2019, and first since 2014. The Lady Flames scored a meet-record 1,859.5 points while ousting four-time defending champion FGCU by nearly 200 points. It came five years to the day after Liberty’s first championship.

• The state-of-the-art Liberty Natatorium opened on Dec. 1, 2017 with the Central Virginia Duals, and was dedicated on Jan. 26, 2018 with an official ceremony. The Liberty Natatorium provides one of the best venues for collegiate swimming and diving in the nation, with a Olympic-sized competition pool and separate diving well and seating for 1,400 spectators in a wraparound setting.

• Liberty’s diving program made a dramatic rise last season, led by 2019 CCSA Women’s Diving Coach of the Year Tori Wood. Liberty divers contributed 225 points at the 2019 CCSA Championships. Also, then freshmen Lauren Chennault, Abigail Egolf-Jensen and Olivia Robinson became the first three divers in program history to qualify for the NCAA Zone Championships.

• A program-record six Lady Flames earned CSCAA Scholar All-America honors last season, in Lauren Chennault, Abigail Egolf-Jensen, Alicia Finnigan, Mikayla Herich, Payton Keiner and Olivia Robinson.

• A total of 13 current Lady Flames have posted CCSA podium finishes in their career, led by four from Payton Keiner. Hannah Baker and Mikayla Herich have both earned three top-three finishes, while Lauren Chennault, Lindsey Cohee, Colleen Donlin, Emily Manly, Olivia Robinson and Brittany Weiss have two podium finishes each. Arielle Arnett, Emma Hazel, Kiah Francis and Emily Zimcosky have each posted one podium finish.

Student-Athlete Notes

• A total of 11 different Lady Flames have recorded at least one individual-event victory this season.

• Junior Payton Keiner, a three-time CCSA champion, is the CCSA leader in 50 free (23.91), 100 back (55.76) and 200 back (2:00.73). The 2018 Most Outstanding Freshman of the CCSA Meet, she holds the CCSA record in the 200 back (1:53.68).

• Senior Brittany Weiss is a two-time CCSA champion in the 100 back, winning in program-record 52.81 in 2018. She was named the 2017 Most Outstanding Freshman of the CCSA Meet. Weiss leads the CCSA in 100 IM (58.31) this season.

• Redshirt junior Mikayla Herich holds program records in the 1650 free (16:37.35) and 200 IM (1:59.82) after winning both events at the 2019 conference meet. She set a program record at last year’s CCSA Championships by scoring 101 points. This year, her 200 IM of 2:06.86 leads the conference.

• Senior Hannah Baker set Liberty’s record in the 200 free (1:46.55 – L) in 2018. She is one of three Liberty captains this season, joined by Colleen Donlin and Kendal Irwin. Baker’s 51.63 for 100 free is the fastest in the CCSA so far this year.

• Sophomore Olivia Robinson, the 2019 VaSID State Rookie Diver of the Year, scored the most points by a Liberty diver at the 2019 CCSA Championships (62), taking second in both one-meter and three-meter. She holds Liberty’s record for platform diving (229.58). Robinson has already qualified for the 2020 Zone Championships in one-meter diving, scoring 267.80 at Penn State.

• Sophomore Lauren Chennault enters the season as Liberty’s program record holder in one-meter (287.10) and three-meter (317.85) diving. Chennault posted two third-place finishes at the 2019 CCSA meet.

• Freshman Eva Suggs’ 1:51.77 is the fastest 200 free by a CCSA swimmer so far in 2019-20.

Matchup Highlights

• Liberty is 4-0 all-time against UNC Asheville in dual meets. The Bulldogs’ first visit to the Liberty Natatorium resulted in a 201-84 Liberty win on Jan. 13, 2018. Last year, Liberty defeated the Bulldogs 136-129 in Asheville, N.C.

• UNC Asheville has defeated Georgia Southern in dual-meet action so far this season, while falling to Queens, Davidson and Campbell.

• The Bulldogs posted their best-ever conference finish at the 2019 CCSA Championships, finishing sixth with 820 points.

• Current Bulldogs Catherine Allen (200 fly – 2:02.13), Madison Rogan (100 fly – 55.66) and Skylar Rogan (500 free – 4:54.50; 1000 free – 10:12.52; 1650 free – 16:58.56) are program record holders.

Up Next

The Lady Flames will fly to Utah for the first time in program history, competing at BYU on Nov. 8-9.

Order of Events

Oct. 25, 2019

1. 200 Medley Relay

2. 500 Freestyle

3. 50 Freestyle

4. 400 IM

5. 200 Backstroke

6. 3-Meter Diving

7. 100 Freestyle

8. 200 Breaststroke

9. 200 Butterfly

10. 400 Freestyle Relay

Oct. 26, 2019

11. 1-Meter Diving

12. Platform Diving

13. 400 Medley Relay

14. 1650 Freestyle

15. 100 Backstroke

16. 100 Breaststroke

17. 200 Freestyle

18. 100 Butterfly

19. 200 IM

20. 200 Freestyle Relay