Wingate
The Wingate University men's swimming team is sixth and the Bulldog women's swimming team is seventh after the first day of the Fall Frenzy Invitational at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center in downtown Charlotte Friday. Fourteen schools are competing in this year's event (Friday's finals, Friday's preliminaries).
WINGATE WOMEN
Wingate sophomore Sofia Petrenko (Arkhangelsk, Russia) continues her stellar swimming, as she finished third in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:04.28. In addition, she swam the anchor leg on Wingate's bronze-medal winning 400 Medley Relay quartet (3:51.13). She was joined by sophomore Vika Arkhipova (Seversk, Russia), redshirt sophomore Olga Kosheleva (Yekaterinburg, Russia) and junior Armony Dumur (Amiens, France).
Dumur swam the first leg on Wingate's eighth-place 200 Freestyle Relay team (1:36.65). Her relay mates include freshman Leigh-Ann Clark (Newport News, Va.), junior Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia) and junior Ana Fish (Carthage, N.C.).
Queens University of Charlotte leads the women's competition with 431.5 points. The Royals are followed in the top 10 by Gardner-Webb (344), West Florida (305), College of Charleston (247), Limestone (228), Georgia Southern (226), Wingate (214), Carson-Newman (178), UNC Asheville (144) and Pfeiffer (103.5).
WINGATE MEN
Bulldog junior Ossian Arvidsson (Kungälv, Sweden) was seventh in the 500 Freestyle with a time of 4:41.38. Wingate freshman Jerome Heidrich (Hamburg, Germany) won the 500 Freestyle "C" final with a time of 4:43.52.
Queens University of Charlotte leads the men's competition with 487 points. Limestone is second with 400 points. The remainder of the top 10 teams includes College of Charleston (365), Carson-Newman (243), Gardner-Webb (223), Wingate (193), Pfeiffer (162), St. Andrews (146), Catawba (124) and Mars Hill (95).
Catawba
The Catawba men sit in ninth and the women 11th after the opening day of the Wingate Fall Frenzy being held through Sunday at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center. Queens sits atop both men's and women's standings with 14 teams competing in the women's meet and 11 in the men's.
Amy Cujas (Mocksville, N.C./Forsyth Country Day) highlighted the opening day of the three-day meet with a school record in the 50 free. On Friday, Cujas actually swam the three fastest 50 free times in school history. She first broke the record in the 50 free afternoon prelim with a time of 24.52. Cujas came back to shave sixth-tenths of second off the mark during the opening leg of the 200 free relay.
Cujas' record time of 24.46 in the relay helped the team to the second fastest time in school history at 1:38.94. She was joined by Anna Barnes (Suwanee, Ga./N. Gwinett HS/Darton St.), Janin Kassner (Giesen, GERMANY/Andreanum) and Nadine Brockmann (Hamburg, GERMANY/Ossietzsky) for an 11th-place finish.
Brockmann (Hamburg, GERMANY/Ossietzsky) swam in the B Final of the 500 free and was 15th in a time of 5:08.13. That marked the third fastest time in school history, replacing her prelim time of 5:08.69. Cujas, Kassner, Brockmann and Barnes teamed up for the 400 medley relay and went 24th in the eighth fastest time in school history (4:04.43).
For the men, Theo Zatterstrom (Stockholm, SWEDEN/Fryshuset) was 15th in the men's 500 free with a time of 4:45.90. Andrew McCollister (Rockwell, N.C./Salisbury HS) was in the C Final and his time of 4:48.16 placed him 23rd. A pair of swimmers were in the C final of the 200 IM with Jevgenij Gamper (Vilnius, LITHUANIA/Kachialov) placing 18th (1:56.01) and Finn Furstenwerth (Hamburg, GERMANY/Gymnasium Farmsen) 21st (1:57.70).
The men's 200 free relay squad of Gamper, Zatterstrom, Dominik Brus (Krakow, POLAND/Loms Krakow) and Toomas Goutt (Saint Witz, FRANCE/de Vinci) were sixth. Their time of 1:24.10 was the seventh best in school history. The four also teamed up for the 400 medley relay which was 11th in the school's fourth best time of 3:26.61.
The Fall Frenzy will continue through the weekend with preliminaries starting up Saturday morning at 10 am and the day two finals at 6 pm.
West Florida
The No. 13 ranked West Florida women’s swimming and diving team posted a strong first day at the Wingate Fall Frenzy on Friday. The Argonauts are third out of 14 teams after the first day, and they trail only No. 2 ranked Queens (N.C.) and Division I opponent Gardner-Webb on the leaderboard.
While sitting in third place, UWF is ahead of No. 3 ranked Wingate and No. 21 Carson-Newman, as well as Division I opponents College of Charleston, Georgia Southern and UNC Asheville.
“I’m proud of the way our team raced,” said UWF head coach Andrew Hancock. “We had a long trip yesterday, and today we came out and represented ourselves well. We took on some of the best Division II teams in the country, as well as a number of solid Division I teams, and we’re competing very well. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next two days have in store for us.”
As a team the Argonauts combined for eight NCAA B-cut times and two new school records. Anna-Marie Macht (Markkleeberg, Germany) had the highest individual finish for UWF after placing second in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:03.78. That time was just 0.09 seconds away from her school record set last February at the NSISC Championships. Peggy de Villiers (Somerset West, South Africa) had a strong finish in the 50 Freestyle, placing third with a time of 23.50. Both Macht’s and de Villiers’ times were B-cuts.
A trio of freshmen also performed well for UWF. Nicole Machado (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) posted a B-cut and a new school record time in her 100 Backstroke split during the 400 Medley Relay (56.92). Her time in the 200 IM (2:08.46) also marked a new school freshman record, and she finished ninth in the event.
Distance specialists and freshmen Angelina Gallastegui (Brandon, Fla.) and Madeline Pitt (Trussville, Ala.) swapped the school record in the 500 Free back-and-forth throughout the day. Gallastegui had the first shot, swimming a school record time of 5:07.24 in the morning preliminaries. Pitt came back and bested her teammate with a time of 5:07.01 in the next heat. Both Argonauts advanced to the B final in the evening session, and Gallastegui (5:05.68) edged Pitt (5:06.05) to retake the record. Gallastegui finished 11th in the event and Pitt 12th.
UWF’s top teams in the 200 Free Relay and the 400 Medley Relay both finished fourth, and both teams posted B-cut times. In the 200 Free Relay, it was Danica Burnett (Perth, Australia), de Villiers, Carla Robles (Miami, Fla.) and Mariana de Paula (Santos, Brazil) posting a time of 1:35.42. Burnett swam a 50 Freestyle split of 24.12 as the lead leg of the relay, which earned her a B-cut in the event. UWF’s 400 Medley Relay team of Machado, Macht, de Villiers and de Paula posted a time of 3:51.77.
Queens
Queens University of Charlotte men’s swim team took four of five top finishes in the first day of the Wingate Fall Frenzy held at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center on Friday, November 21, 2014. The Royals would set three new pool records in their dominate performance for the day.
The Men’s 200 Yard Freestyle Relay flew through the pool to take not only a first place finish but shattered the pool record time of 1:22.11 with their impressive 1:20.92. Matthew Josa, Niclas Eriksson, Zachary Phelps, and Hayden Kosater, respectfully, grabbed an NCAA ‘B’ Standard time moving them into second in the NCAA Division II.
Nicholas Arakelian and Alex Menke closed out the top of the men’s 500 Yard Freestyle. Arakelian took the event with a 4:26.41 finish to claim not only the race but the pool record. Menke secured second with a 4:30.87 in the finals. Both posted NCAA ‘B’ Standard times.
With over two seconds to spare, Josa made space for a second pool record with his performance in the 200 Yard Individual Medley. Josa’s record swim of 1:47.16 gave him the event and an NCAA Division II ‘A’ Standard time. This would be the first NCAA ‘A’ Standard time on the men’s side.
Queens wrapped up the day taking hold of the last event, the 400 Yard Medley Relay. Phelps, Eriksson, Josa, and Kosater, respectfully found the wall in a time of 3:18.86 for an NCAA ‘B’ Standard finish.
Queens University of Charlotte women’s swim team rose to the challenge with a dominant performance at the Wingate Fall Frenzy. The team took a first place finish in four out of five final events for the day, setting pool records for three of them.
The Women’s 200 Yard Freestyle Relay immediately put Queens on the board with a pool record time as Caroline Arakelian, Alexandra Marshall, Shane Knight, and Kristin Diemer, respectfully, touched with an NCAA ‘B’ Standard performance of 1:34:40. The four would finish in a time that stands atop the NCAA rankings for Division II.
Arakelian immediately returned back to the blocks for another solid performance taking the 500 Yard Freestyle with a pool record time of 4:52.00. She would land the Royals their first NCAA ‘A’ Standard time of the year. Arakelian, however, would not be alone at the top of the race as three teammates followed directly behind with Lillian Gordy, McKenzie Stevens, and Kathryn Johnston, respectfully taking second, third, and forth for the Royals in the event.
Hannah Peiffer continued the trend taking hold of the 200 Yard Individual Medley as she drove past the competition for a 2:03.47 time and an NCAA ‘B’ Standard.
Closing out the day, the women’s team saw another first place record swim in the 400 Yard Medley Relay. Peiffer, Arakelian, Marshall, and Gordy, respectfully clocked a 3:46.26 finish for an NCAA ‘B’ Standard.
