Wingate
The number five Wingate University women's swimming team won the Savannah College of Art and Design Invitational for the fifth year in a row Saturday, compiling 2252.50 points. The number four Bulldog men finished second with 2121.50 points. Indian River State (Fla.) College won the men's event with 2515 points. The IRSC Pioneers have won 39 consecutive NJCAA men's swimming national championships (Saturday's results, Saturday's preliminaries, day three team scores). The SCAD Invitational is held each year at the Chatham County Aquatic Center.
"This is our best mid-season performance during my 13 years as coach, hands down," Wingate head men's and women's swimming coach Kirk Sanocki says. "We made some slight alterations with our entries. In the past, we would have our student-athletes swim more events. This year, we decided we would have our swimmers focus on their primary event(s)."
"Of course, some of our swimmers can go deeper...and swim more events," Sanocki says. "In the relay races, we wanted to make them as competitive as possible. I am happy with our progress. We represented Wingate Swimming very well."
Wingate freshman Jessika Weiss (Macon, Ga.) broke a five-year-old school record with her victorious 2:18.21 swim in the 200 Breaststroke. The previous record holder is Wingate national champion and current assistant coach Maria Vlashchenko, who swam a 2:18.59 200 Breaststroke at the 2008 NCAA Division II national championship meet in Columbia, Mo.
Wingate senior Katie Pheil (Ocala, Fla.) broke her own school records in the 50 Freestyle and the 100 Freestyle during relay swims. On the men's side, sophomore Roman Kanyuka (Moscow, Russia) matched Weiss by winning the 200 Breaststroke with a new school record time of 2:00.42. Classmate and teammate Damjan Petrovski (Skopje, Macedonia) held the previous record with a 2:00.52.
