The Wingate University men's and women's swimming teams completed the second day of a two-day, two-city quad meet in the same place they started, on top of the leader boards. The second day of the unique event was held at Timken Aquatic Center on the campus of Limestone College. Lenoir-Rhyne and Catawba joined the WU Bulldogs and the LC Saints for the competition.
The Bulldog women posted 577.5 points. Limestone (429.5), Lenoir-Rhyne (236.5) and Catawba (224.5) followed on the leader board. In the men's event, Wingate recorded 554 points. Limestone was second with 470 points, followed by Catawba (234) and Lenoir-Rhyne (233).
"The more we raced (this weekend), the better we got," Wingate head coach Kirk Sanocki says. "Our conditioning level is paying dividends for us. We had several tremendous times for this point of the season. We still have things we need to clean up, but I believe we are on pace with the plan."
Wingate Women
Bulldog juniors Vika Arkhipova (Seversk, Russia) and Sofia Petrenko (Arkhangelsk, Russia) won two individual events each and contributed to a meet-concluding triumph in the 400 Freestyle Relay. Arkhipova won the 100 Backstroke (57.23) and stepped out of her comfort zone to touch first in the 200 Freestyle (1:55.43).
Petrenko collected gold medals in the 200 Breaststroke (2:24.54) and the 400 Individual Medley (4:28.78). Petrenko and Arkhipova teamed with sophomore Leigh-Ann Clark (Newport News, Va.) and senior Ana Fish (Carthage, N.C.) to win the 400 Free Relay with a time of 3:31.58.
Fish started her day by swimming the anchor leg of Wingate's victorious 200 Medley Relay quartet (1:47.41). She was joined (in order) by senior Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia), redshirt junior Olga Kosheleva (Yekaterinburg, Russia) and junior Caitlin Coughlin (Cochranville, Pa.). Individually, Fish won the 50 Freestyle with a time of 24.13. Coughlin got into the winner's circle with her victory in the 100 Butterfly (59.19).
"Our women's team has an opportunity to do something special this season," Sanocki says. "We look forward to Armony Dumur (Amiens, France) returning for the second semester."
Wingate Men
Wingate sophomore Jerome Heidrich (Hamburg, Germany) added an individual triumph and a relay win to his two individual victories from Friday. On Saturday, Heidrich won the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:42.23. Redshirt freshman teammate Lennart Queiss (Langen, Germany) was two/tenths of a second behind Heidrich with a 1:42.43 silver-medal time.
Heidrich and Queiss swam the first two legs of Wingate's first-place 400 Freestyle Relay quartet. They were joined by juniors Leif-Henning Klüver (Risum-Lindholm, Germany) and 2015 Academic All-America Lucas Cuadros (Cali, Colombia), posting a time of 3:06.07.
In the day's first individual competition, freshman Camden Wunderlich (Snohomish, Wash.) won his first collegiate event when he defeated the field in the 1000 Freestyle (9:42.44). Wunderlich and his teammates finished 1-2-3-4 in the grueling distance competition. Klüver was second, followed by senior Ossian Arvidsson (Kungälv, Sweden) and Eric Ordaz (Fort Myers, Fla.). Arvidsson collected a gold medal in the 400 Individual Medley with his triumphant time of 4:08.98.
"Our men's team is starting to gel," Sanocki says. "My favorite part of the day was having the opportunity to see Camden Wunderlich win his first collegiate event."
Wingate returns to action Friday, venturing up Highway 74 to face Bluegrass Mountain Conference rival Queens University of Charlotte in a dual meet. The first event at the Levine Center will begin at 4 p.m.
Catawba
Marcia-Mariel Erhart and Dominik Brus made it two straight days with an individual win for Catawba in the Quad Meet featuring Catawba, Wingate, Limestone and Lenoir-Rhyne. Limestone hosted Saturday's action at the Timkin Center. The Catawba men edged out Lenoir-Rhyne by one point for third place, while the women were fourth, 12 points behind the Bears.
Erhart notched another top five all-time swim for the Catawba women in winning the 1000 free. The freshman swam a time of 10:38.35 for the fourth best in school history. Brus picked up his win in the men's 100 back as he touched in a time of 51.65.
Brus added a fifth-place finish in the 100 fly (53.07) with freshman Ali Hegazi taking fifth in both the 1000 free (9:55.96) and the 200 free (1:45.17). Jevgenij Gamper took fourth in the 50 free (22.08) and seventh in the 200 breast (1:25.92). Rafal Baran touched fourth in the 400 IM (4:17.32).
Erhart followed her 1000 free with a third in the 400 IM (4:44.48). Nadine Brockmann swam to fourth in the 200 free (1:59.38) and was seventh in the 50 free (25.81). Amy Cujas claimed fourth in the 100 fly (1:01.88) and finished eighth in the 50 free (25.86).
Palmer Benson had Catawba's top finish in the 200 breast (2:39.21) in seventh and was ninth in the 400 IM (5:07.96). Paula Garcia placed 13th in the 100 back (1:04.65) and Jess Daniel took sixth in the 100 fly (1:02.96).
Catawba will next swim at the Wingate Fall Frenzy from December 4-6.
