Wingate
The number three Wingate University women's swimming team won the 10th annual Savannah College of Art and Design College Invitational for the sixth year in a row (and the eighth time in the last nine years) at the Chatham County Aquatic Center Saturday night. The number five Bulldog men's swimming team finished second to host SCAD-Savannah. Wingate's men have won seven of the last nine SCAD Invite events (full meet results, team scores).
The Wingate women completed the three-day event with 2109 points. Host SCAD-Savannah was second with 1632.5 points, followed by Brenau (Ga.) with 1349 points. On the men's side, SCAD-Savannah compiled 1792 points; Wingate was second with 1720 points. Berry (Ga.) claimed third place with 912 points.
"We accomplished what we came (to SCAD) to do this weekend," Wingate head men's and women's swimming coach Kirk Sanocki says. "From the coaching staff's perspective, we far exceeded our expectations."
"On both the men's and women's teams, our freshman class swam an outstanding meet," Sanocki says. "Our performances across the board...were excellent. Individually, we are on track to do what we want to do. Collectively, we are on track to accomplish our season-ending goals in the Bluegrass Mountain Conference meet and the NCAA meet."
WINGATE WOMEN
Wingate junior Armony Dumur (Amiens, France) won two individual events and swam the anchor leg on the Bulldogs' victorious 400 Freestyle Relay team Saturday. The Bulldogs won six events Saturday. Individually, Dumur won the 100 Butterfly (53.82) and the 100 Freestyle (50.58). She led Wingate's 1-2-3-5 finish in the 100 Freestyle event.
Dumur was joined on the 400 Freestyle Relay quartet by sophomore Sofia Petrenko (Arkhangelsk, Russia), junior Ana Fish (Carthage, N.C.) and freshman Leigh-Ann Clark (Newport News, Va.). The Bulldogs posted a triumphant time of 3:26.49. Wingate's "B" relay team finished second in the same event (3:35.88).
Fish swam the anchor leg as Wingate started its day with a victory in the 200 Medley Relay. Bulldog junior Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia), redshirt sophomore Olga Kosheleva (Yekaterinburg, Russia) and Jasmine Arzadon (Lorton, Va.) swam the first three legs as Wingate turned in a gold-medal time of 1:43.65. Wingate's "B" and "C" relay quartets were second (1:46.26) and third (1:49.13), respectively, in the 200 Medley Relay event.
Petrenko won the 200 Individual Medley (2:02.78) as Wingate student-athletes occupied the top five spots in the event. Kosheleva was second, followed by senior Kellie Gervis (Imperial, Pa.), sophomore Jessika Weiss (Macon, Ga.) and freshman Marinela Procopii (Hickory, N.C.).
Weiss was second in the 200 Breaststroke (2:18.51) with Kosheleva, Porcopii and senior Luisa Santiesteban (Chihuahua, Mexico) occupying the third through fifth-place spots. Arzadon was third in the 100 Butterfly (57.20), while Fish, Clark and Koryukova were second, third and fifth, respectively, in the 100 Freestyle.
Sophomore Vika Arkhipova (Seversk, Russia) won the 200 Backstroke with a time of 2:01.28. Sophomore Erin Brooks (Hilliard, Ohio) was third, while freshman Mariona Espinalt (Barcelona, Spain) was fourth in the same event. Bulldog redshirt junior Julie Wessler (Sprockhövel, Germany) was third in the 500 Freestyle with a bronze-medal time of 5:04.45. Wingate's Petrenko set a SCAD Invitational record in the 500 Freestyle morning preliminaries, but she had to scratch from the evening finals.
WINGATE MEN
The Wingate men won five events Saturday, including both the 200 Medley Relay and the 400 Freestyle Relay. The Bulldogs finished 1-2 in the 200 Medley Relay. The Wingate "A" team won the event with a time of 1:31.73. Team members include freshman Brendan Ryan (Havertown, Pa.), sophomores Roman Kanyuka (Moscow, Russia) and Leif-Henning Klüver (Risum-Lindholm, Germany) and senior Issam Zeraidi (Brussels, Belgium).
Issam Zeraidi and Klüver swam the first two legs as Wingate won the 400 Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:01.33. They were joined by sophomore Lucas Cuadros (Cali, Colombia) and freshman Jerome Heidrich (Hamburg, Germany). Wingate's "B" team was fourth in the 400 Freestyle Relay.
Individually, seniors Samuel Knapp (Madison, Ala.) and David Collum (DeLand, Fla.) and junior Damjan Petrovski (Skopje, Macedonia) won one event each. Knapp won the 200 Backstroke (1:50.09) with Ryan finishing third (1:53.33).
Petrovski touched first in the 200 Breaststroke (2:01.46), edging teammate Kanyuka by 0.15 of a second. Kanyuka's silver-medal time was 2:01.61. Freshmen Mikhail Parkhomenko (Saint Petersburg, Russia) and Robin Siegel (Friedberg, Germany) were third (2:03.61) and fifth (2:07.58), respectively, in the same event.
Collum won his gold medal in the 200 Individual Medley with a triumphant time of 1:52.40. Sophomore Øystein Fjeldberg (Oslo, Norway) was fourth in the 200 IM. Sophomore Mehdi Zeraidi (Brussels, Belgium) was second in the 100 Butterfly (51.09), while Heidrich was third in the 500 Freestyle (4:32.78).
Both Wingate teams will take a break for final examinations (Dec. 10-16) and Christmas before returning for their post-holiday Florida training trip. The Bulldogs' next competition is Saturday, Jan. 3, as Wingate visits Florida Southern for a tri-meet with Bridgeport (Conn.). "We are looking forward to getting home and preparing for final exams," Sanocki says. "We will be working hard to re-establish our base for the second half of the season."
