Postma, Stansberry tally three-win day as Eagles knock off Tornado and Wasps
EMORY, Va. – Carson-Newman freshman Lisa Posta (Leiden, Holland) and sophomore Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.) registered three wins in the 50 and 100m Free and the 400 Free Relay and helped guide the Eagles to a tri-meet win over the Emory & Henry Wasps and King Tornado Saturday afternoon at Emory & Henry Aquatic Center in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
EMORY, Va. – Carson-Newman freshman Lisa Postma (Leiden, Holland) and sophomore Margaret Stansberry (Knoxville, Tenn.) registered three wins in the 50 and 100m Free and the 400 Free Relay and helped guide the Eagles to a tri-meet win over the Emory & Henry Wasps and King Tornado Saturday afternoon at Emory & Henry Aquatic Center in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The 17th-ranked women notched wins over 163-29 over King and 143-62 over the Wasps while the men knocked off the Tornado 327-54 as the Eagles won 21 of the 22 events swam.
Five different male swimmers notched two wins with freshmen Seth Hughes (Kingston, Tenn.), Carson Knox (Plant City, Fla.), Pijus Mackevicius (Kaunas, Lithuania) and Josh Winn (Round Rock, Texas) to pace C-N.
The Emory & Henry Aquatic Center's pool is measured in meters, which is different than the yards pool that is inside Maddox Pool, made for a different type of meet for Carson-Newman.
"The team today practiced good race skills in a live event situation, even though the format was quite different," coach Paige McCord said.
The 400m Medley Relay consisting of junior Amanda Henderson (Bartlett, Tenn.), freshman Elly Culp (West End, N.C.), sophomore Maggie Melhorn (Knoxville, Tenn.) and junior Samantha Starnes (Knoxville, Tenn.) opened the meet with a win in a time of 4:33.77.
Postma swam the 50m Free 28.02 seconds and posted a time of 1:01.41 in the 100m Free; she was joined by Starnes, Stansberry and junior Nancy Claire Smith (Franklin, Tenn.) to cap the meet with a swim of 4:10.97 to win the 400m Medley Relay. Stansberry also picked up a win in the 200m Free in 2:09.67 and the 200m Individual Medley in 2:28.51.
Culp won the 100m Fly with a time of 1:08.50, while Smith won the 400m Free after swimming 4:47.41 and beat her closest competitor by five seconds.
Sophomore Lexy Raybon (Sarasota, Fla.) won the 800m Free with a time of 9:42.14, which was 26 seconds quicker than the second-place finisher; freshman Olivia Winkler (Marietta, Ga.) picked up a win in the 100m Back after swimming a time of 1:07.97.
The men's team won all 11 events that they competed in to sweep the Tornado.
Hughes and Knox were joined by juniors Landis Cranford (Greensboro, N.C.) and Sam Schechter (Knoxville, Tenn.) to open the meet with a 4:08.01 winning time in the 400m Medley Relay. Hughes also notched a win in the 100m Back after a time of 1:00.41. Knox tallied a win in the 800m Free with a swim of 9:19.74; freshman Robert Griswold (Freehold, N.J.) set a new American record in the 800m Free after finishing second with a time of 9:24.32.
Mackevicius won the 200 Free with a time of 2:02.83 and finished five seconds clear of sophomore Ben McCrary (Woodbury, Tenn.) who finished second and also was a member of the winning 400m Free Relay team. Mackevicius, junior Tommy Bourgeois (Kingsport, Tenn.), sophomore Ryan Burcham (Lenoir City, Tenn.) and junior Joshua Graves (Hendersonville, Tenn.) won the 400 Free Relay with a time of 3:48.43.
Winn registered wins in the 100m Fly with a time of 1:02.21 that was four seconds quicker than the second-place finisher and the 400m Free in 4:29.78. Junior Josh Grover (Villa Rica, Ga.) won the 200m Individual Medley by five seconds with a time of 2:20.77 and the 100m Breast in 1:08.72.
McCrary picked up a win in the 100m Free by a hundredth of a second over freshman Garrett Stelling (Eads, Tenn.) with a time 55.20 seconds and freshman Jonny Goss (Heiskell, Tenn.) picked up a win in the 50m Free in 24.27 seconds; Schechter finished second in the 50m Free.
"I was pleased to see swimmers like Bethany McNabb and Jonny Goss put up some quick times for this point in the season. Robert Griswold's S-8 American record in the 800 got things started; Courtlyn Fields swam will in the 100 Fly and Nancy Claire Smith had both a strong distance time and a quick 100 split in the relay," McCord said. "Pijus Mackevicius had a really well structured 200 Free. Olivia Winkler showed big improvement and a fast time in the 200 I.M. Margaret Stansberry swam a quick 2:09 in the 200 Free. Landis Cranford and Josh Grover, members of the leadership committee, led well today in the water. It was a good day for the Eagles."
Carson-Newman returns to the pool next Saturday as they travel to Salisbury, N.C. to face the Catawba Indians at 1 p.m. in the regular season finale.
