In a battle of nationally-ranked titans, the number three Wingate University women's swimming team and the number three Florida Southern College men's swimming team collected dual meet victories at the Nina B. Hollis Wellness Center Pool on the FSC campus Saturday afternoon. The Wingate women claimed a 107-98 victory over the number six FSC Mocs, while the hosts notched a 121-78 triumph over the number six Bulldog men.
"I was pleasantly surprised with how we swam today," Wingate head men's and women's swimming coach Kirk Sanocki says. "Traditionally, we don't swim well during our training trip meets. I think today was one of our better (training trip meet) efforts."
#3 Wingate women 107, #6 Florida Southern 98
Bulldog sophomore Sofia Petrenko (Arkhangelsk, Russia) won three individual events to lead the visitors. Petrenko touched first in the 200 Individual Medley (2:09.22), the 200 Butterfly (2:08.44) and the 200 Backstroke (2:05.6). In the Butterfly, Wingate claimed 16 big points, as sophomore Caitlin Coughlin (Cochranville, Pa.) and redshirt junior Julie Wessler (Sprockhövel, Germany) were second (2:11.58) and third (2:11.70), respectively.
Wingate won both relays, taking the checkered flag in the 400 Medley Relay (3:55.19) and the 400 Freestyle Relay (3:35.40). Bulldog junior Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia) and freshman Leigh-Ann Clark (Newport News, Va.) swam with both quartets. In the 400 Medley Relay, they were joined by redshirt sophomore Olga Kosheleva (Yekaterinburg, Russia) and junior Armony Dumur (Amiens, France).
In the 400 Freestyle Relay, junior Ana Fish (Carthage, N.C.) and sophomore Vika Arkhipova (Seversk, Russia) completed the Wingate foursome. Arkhipova won the 200 Backstroke with a time of 2:05.60. "We had several timely victories on the women's side," Sanocki says. "Obviously...winning both relays was huge for us."
#3 Florida Southern men 121, #6 Wingate 78
Wingate sophomore Roman Kanyuka (Moscow, Russia) and freshman Mikhail Parkhomenko (Saint Petersburg, Russia) finished one-two in the 200 Breaststroke. Kanyuka was first with a time of 2:06.60, while Parkhomenko was second with a time of 2:11.30.
The Bulldogs won the 400 Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:07.90. Sophomore Leif-Henning Klüver (Risum-Lindholm, Germany) swam the first leg. He was followed by freshman Jerome Heidrich (Hamburg, Germany) and seniors David Collum (DeLand, Fla.) and Issam Zeraidi (Brussels, Belgium).
Both Wingate teams will remain in Florida for a week of training. The next competition for the Bulldogs is Saturday, Jan. 17, as Wingate hosts UNC Wilmington at the WU Natatorium.
