The Queens University of Charlotte men’s and women’s swim teams held their first home meet on Friday, November 13, 2015, against the Wingate Bulldogs. The Royals took the match-up on both sides seeing a score of 132 from the women and a score of 129 for the men. Wingate would score 119 for the women and 122 for the men.
The Royals took first in all but one event before they started pulling swimmers after clinching the meet on both sides. The team would see four pool records broken by the Royals.
The team started the day with two wins in the 200 Yard Medley Relay. Caroline Arakelian, Shelly Prayson, Patricia Castro-Ortega, and Kyrie Dobson, respectively, broke a pool record set by the University of Tennessee the year prior. The group took a 1:42.26 provisional time to start the meet. The men’s team of Zachary Phelps, Rostyslav Fedyna, Mitch Harwood, and Ben Mayes, respectively, grabbed their first place finish for the event with a 1:31.69.
Lauren Fizzell topped the 1000 Yard Freestyle taking hold of a 10:30.24, NCAA “B” Standard time. Queens secured the top three places for the race with Kathryn Johnson grabbing second with a 10:35.81 and Meridith Boudreaux taking third with a 10:36.51. Nicholas Arakelian found the men’s victory in the 1000 Yard Freestyle securing a 9:19.78 for a near 20 second gap over the pool.
It was a 1-2-3 finish for the women in the 200 Yard Freestyle. Castro-Ortega set a pool record with a 1:48.09. Her time claimed the record by over two seconds and gave her an NCAA “A” Standard cut for the race. McKenzie Stevens took the second place finish for the team with a 1:51.88 while Josephina Lorda took third with a 1:52.48. Dion Dreesens claimed the men’s 200 Yard Freestyle pool record, going 1:37.97 for the event.
C. Arakelian took first in the 100 Yard Backstroke on the women’s side with a 56.39. Phelps mirrored the result with a first place swim on the men’s side of 51.26.
Fedyna secured a pool record with a half of second to spare as he took a 54.44 time in the 100 Yard Breaststroke. Devyn Hughes would follow for the second place finish with a time of 57.30. On the women’s side, Prayson and Brittney Phelan took the top two spots as Prayson went 1:04.38 for first place as Phelan went 1:05.23 for second place.
Dreesens added another first place finish to his night as he took hold of a 1:51.54 in the 200 Yard Butterfly. Hector Tricas secured the second place finish going 1:53.45 for the event.
The 50 Yard Freestyle landed the Royals with two more first place swims as Dobson took the women’s side with a 23.39 and Mayes took the men’s side with a 20.88.
Dobson followed with a 52.04 swim in the 100 Yard Freestyle to claim first place. Ben Taylor took the top swim for the men going 45.50 while Mayes took second place with a 45.78.
Brother and sister duo, C. Arakelian and N. Arakelian, topped the pool in the 200 Yard Backstroke. C. Arakelian would grab the pool record with a 2:01.37 while N. Arakelian top his event with a 1:52.22. Castro-Ortega would take second place on the women’s side with a 2:02.36 which would also exceed the previous pool record time.
The Royals concluded with two top swims in the 200 Yard Breaststroke. Phelan found a 2:19.56 first place touch while Fedyna took a 2:01.09 to top the pool.
Queens will be back in action tomorrow as they host Limestone and Catawba. The meet is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.
Wingate
The Queens University of Charlotte swimming teams earned two victories in a dual meet with Bluegrass Mountain Conference rival Wingate University at the Levine Center Friday. The Queens men prevailed 129-122 over Wingate, while the Royals won the women's meet by a score of 132-119. Both Queens teams are number one in the nation; Wingate's women are fifth, while the Bulldog men are number 10 (complete results).
#1 Queens (N.C.) men 129, #10 Wingate 122
Wingate won three individual events and one relay race Friday. Junior Leif-Henning Klüver (Risum-Lindholm, Germany) touched first in the 500 Freestyle with a time of 4:43.43. He swam the anchor leg as the Bulldogs won the 200 Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:25.45. Klüver was joined by sophomore Jerome Heidrich (Hamburg, Germany), junior Lucas Cuadros (Cali, Colombia) and redshirt freshman Lennart Queiss (Langen, Germany).
Bulldog freshman Niklas Martin (Kempton, Germany) won the 100 Butterfly with a time of 51.40. Wingate senior team captain Ossian Arvidsson (Kungälv, Sweden) claimed the gold medal in the 400 Individual Medley with his time of 4:02.93.
#1 Queens (N.C.) women 132, #5 Wingate 119
Wingate junior Sofia Petrenko (Arkhangelsk, Russia) won two individual events for the visiting Bulldogs. Petrenko won the 500 Freestyle (5:04.30) and the 200 Butterfly (2:04.83). She shattered the 200 Fly Levine Center pool record by almost seven seconds.
Bulldog junior Caitlin Coughlin (Cochranville, Pa.) won one individual event and helped Wingate win one relay race. Coughlin touched first in the 100 Butterfly (58.13) and swam the second leg on Wingate's 200 Freestyle Relay quartet. She was joined (in order) by senior Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia), sophomore Miranda Seegars (Monroe, N.C.) and freshman Hanna Van Horen (Hofstade, Belgium).
Wingate junior Jessika Weiss (Macon, Ga.) won the 400 Individual Medley with her triumphant time of 4:43.36. The Bulldog women will visit Gardner-Webb Friday at 5:30 p.m., while the Wingate men host the GWU Runnin' Bulldogs the same day and the same time. The teams switch sites Saturday as the Wingate women host Gardner-Webb (11 a.m.) and the GWU men entertain Wingate (11 a.m.).
