UNCW Women Lose to Campbell On Final Relay in Bobby Guntoro’s Debut

Campbell v. UNCW

  • Seahawk Natatorium, Wilmington, NC
  • Dual Meet Format
  • SCY
  • January 30, 2021
  • Full Results

In a nail-biter of a meet, the Campbell Camels just overcame the UNCW Seahawks in new UNCW head coach Bobby Guntoros debut.

The Seahawks opened up the competition with with a 1:46.80 win in the 200 medley relay, highlighted by Evan Arsenault‘s 23.09 anchor leg, almost a second faster than any of Campbell’s anchors.

The schools would continue to duel it out from there, evenly splitting the first six individual events, before the break. UNCW edged ahead in terms of wins, taking four of the six individual events in the second half, but with only 13 women racing, UNCW couldn’t match Campbell in terms of depth.

Campbell went into the final relay, the 200 free, by three points, and they hung on to win that event, and the meet, by a scant 0.14s, touching in 1:36.39 to UNCW’s 1:36.55.

Guntoro, formerly the associate head coach at NC State and a UNCW alum, took over the Seahawks’ program last summer after Jason Demont was terminated after six seasons. While a quick glance at the times don’t show an immediately burst of speed under the new staff, UNCW has only been back training for ten days, and the team was down 13 swimmers for today’s meet, with ten of them being freshmen. It wasn’t immediately clear why nearly half the UNCW was absent. Back in October, a cluster of seven cases was linked to the team, but we haven’t seen any similar announcement recently.

Campbell has looked fairly solid this season, having won the Liberty Invite in November and currently projected to finish 4th at the CSCAA Championships. Five different individual swimmers each accounted for the Camels’ five individual wins. UNCW, meanwhile, got double wins from three swimmers, including two of the three non-freshmen competing.

Courtesy of UNCW Sports

Campbell Release

WILMINGTON, NC – Five individual winners and a dramatic finish in the day’s final event, the 200 free relay, helped push the Camels (2-3-1) to their first win of the spring in a 137-125 win over UNC Wilmington (0-1).

With the meet on the line and the Camels ahead by only three points, it was essentially a winner-take-all race in the 200 free relay. Trailing slightly, Colleen Renshaw hit the water in the anchor leg with work to do. She overtook the UNCW anchor and secured the win in the event and the meet with a time of 1:36.39. (You can check out the footage from that race HERE)

The first win of the day came in the 200 free when Annie Sanchez posted a 1:53.61, over a more than a full second ahead of second place.

Izza Gaskey had a dramatic finish of her own in the 100 breast, touching only 0.01 ahead of second place, with a time of 1:08.58.

The ensuing event, the 200 fly, was a clean sweep for the Camels. Simone Palomo touched first at 2:07.50, followed by Skyler DeWall at 2:11.73  and Lauren Shoemaker at 2:14.40.

The next win came in the 200 breast, with Maria Kristjansdottir and Gaskey going 1-2 with respective times of 2:25.98 and 2:27.75.

With the score close, Maialen Sudpue edged second place by 0.14 seconds for the win while Kristine Mikkelson grabbed third in the 200 IM. That result put Campbell ahead by three prior to that final 200 free relay.

In addition to the five indivual winners, the Campbell took two of the top three spots in eight different events on the day.

Campbell returns to action this Friday night at 5 pm at home to take on UNC Pembroke. That will be the Camels final tune up ahead of the CCSA meet February 14-17.

Keep following @GoCamelsSwim on Twitter and Instagram for all the latest about the team.

UNCW Release

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Needing to win the 200 Free Relay in the final race of the meet, UNCW was edged by Campbell for the event win and meet win, 137-125, on Saturday at the Seahawk Natatorium.

The Camels (2-3-1) fended off the come-from-behind effort by the Seahawks, touching the wall with a time of 1:36.99, .16 seconds ahead of UNCW in its season opener.

Sophomore Mary Grace Copeland and Evan Arsenault both won two events and swam on the winning 200 Medley Relay for the Seahawks. Copeland swept the Backstroke events while Arsenault did so in the 50 and 100 Freestyles.

Sophomore Tink Niebel captured the 200 Fly and also swam a leg on the winning 200 Medley Relay.

Freshman Sophia Landeryou added a UNCW sweep of the 500 and 1000 Freestyles.

The Seahawks return to the pool on Feb. 6 with a diving only meet at Duke.

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Clubcoach
3 years ago

Reading this article and the comment section is very entertaining.

As a club coach in Raleigh, I was shock when Bobby accepted the job at UNCW. The party culture was out of control. It was the place to have fun and not swimming fast. Sounds like Bobby is changing the culture very quickly. I am sure higher expectations and new standards are hard to meet by the current team members. I will recommend UNCW to my current swimmers. Will be a great option for in state swimmers.

Hillsdale
3 years ago

I Wonder why over half of the men’s team has quit this year….

swimmyfish123
Reply to  Hillsdale
3 years ago

wonder if the 13 girls missing from the meet were actually missing or if they quit as well…

Imagine
Reply to  Hillsdale
3 years ago

Probs because they are used to not having to work and meet expectations.

Breezeway
Reply to  Hillsdale
3 years ago

Probably the same reason why the last coach was fired

Hawk supporter
3 years ago

From what I can understand they didn’t lose on the final relay. Bobby ran a dive meet on friday where he even took time out of admins day to help come score the meet and failed to mention he wasn’t counting the scores into the meet. So they lost due to Bobby’s incompetence not the final relay.

Swimmin365
Reply to  Hawk supporter
3 years ago

Does Campbell have diving??

DWY
Reply to  Swimmin365
3 years ago

The sport is listed on Campbell’s website as “swimming.” Campbell does not have any athletes listed on their roster as divers. They do not have a coach listed as a diving coach. If they have a diving program it is not well advertised.

Last edited 3 years ago by DWY
Swimmin365
Reply to  DWY
3 years ago

Well then… why would UNCW score the diving?

swimmyfish123
Reply to  Swimmin365
3 years ago

have you ever been to a high school or college swim meet? divers get scored regardless of if all teams have them.

Swimmin365
Reply to  swimmyfish123
3 years ago

Ha ha. I’ve been to plenty of college swim meets. I swam in college and competed against a team without diving before and our team didn’t scored the diving portion.

Swimmin366
Reply to  Swimmin365
3 years ago

It will be interesting to see if Bobby will count diving points at conference. Using this logic he shouldn’t because William and Mary doesn’t have diving. Interesting call.

Pennsylvania Tuxedo
Reply to  Swimmin366
3 years ago

I could be wrong, but in college I’ve never been to a single dual meet where one team had diving and the other did not and they counted diving points. I dont know if its an NCAA rule or an “unwritten” one.

Happens in high school all the time, but 4 years of college swimming and 5 more years as a college coach I saw it happen 0 times.

down15seahawks
Reply to  Hawk supporter
3 years ago

YUP

Anonymous
3 years ago

Keep in mind, these are the team members that Jason Memont had. As with most teams, you will see changes as the years roll in. Seems the meet was a little restricted with 10 swimmers not competing.

Hillsdale
Reply to  Anonymous
3 years ago

No size restrictions on the meet

swimmyfish123
3 years ago

no, actually, only 8 of the freshmen are swimmers. the other 2/10 are divers and god forbid the points they scored get counted

swimmyfish123
Reply to  swimmyfish123
3 years ago

and 2 of those freshmen didn’t swim as well

Jebron Lames
3 years ago

Swimswam with the fiery and scandalous title

swimfun
Reply to  Jebron Lames
3 years ago

Only in swimming is declaring one team a winning team and one team a losing team “fiery and scandalous.”

This is why nobody watches swimming.

coachymccoachface
Reply to  swimfun
3 years ago

I mean it can be objectively boring as well

PG3
3 years ago

I’d like to know what the current team has to say about Bobby’s attitude. Something tells me this is very very fake and things in Wilmington aren’t as rosy as he’d like us to believe.

Scoobysnak
Reply to  PG3
3 years ago

Lol you know nothing

PG3
Reply to  Scoobysnak
3 years ago

It seems I must know more than you. Go ask the athletes at UNCW how they feel.

Breezeway
Reply to  PG3
3 years ago

here we go again. More so called disgruntled swimmers. Bobby G, just clean out the ones who don’t want to be there and keep the ones who do and want to work.

Huh
Reply to  Breezeway
3 years ago

Swimswam needs to add a clown emote just for you.

Breezeway
Reply to  Huh
3 years ago

OK

Swimmin365
Reply to  PG3
3 years ago

Ask all head coaches about their 1st year. Nothing “rosy” about building a great program on year 1 lol. Ask Braden Holloway about his 1st year at NC State.

Questionable
Reply to  Swimmin365
3 years ago

Lol exactly. Holloway brought a whopping like 17 athletes to mens ACCs his first year, because thats who remained on the team after many were dropped, cut or quit. Its always rough first year as a programs new head coach (less so if its a current associate head stepping up)

Samuli Hirsi
Reply to  PG3
3 years ago

“You know nothing, Jon Snow” ….. to be good college coach you need to be salesman, plaster over problems and buy PS5 to athletes lounge…. You cannot have everything, this is the system you have built.

FormerSeahawk
Reply to  PG3
3 years ago

It’s very clear the future of this program is bright. The first year for a head coach will always have its challenges, especially with upperclassmen who are being held to new standards and expectations.

Retiree
Reply to  PG3
3 years ago

Coming from one of sixteen retirees this past semester, it hurt to have my college career brought to an end by the belittlement of the new coaching staff. As an upperclassmen, I can understand how the new coaches and myself would not see eye to eye, but losing sixteen athletes because of failure to work with us as advertised has been an unfortunate end to all of our careers.

Imagine
Reply to  Retiree
3 years ago

Imagine getting gifted with one of the best coaches in the country and being too lazy and weak of mind to realize it. Yikes.

The “retirees” should be embarrassed.

PG3
Reply to  Imagine
3 years ago

Ok, if he’s really one of the best coaches in the country, I’d think he’d have the ability to get along with and sell himself to the athletes in front of him. Maybe he’s just a bad coach who was gifted some of the best athletes in the country and workouts from one of the best coaches.

You know nothing
Reply to  Imagine
3 years ago

One of the best coaches… cmon… did you swim for him? .. no. Being a great coach, let alone one of the best in the country, takes a LOT MORE than in water swimming knowledge

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