Courtesy: Carson Newman Athletics
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – In its first home meet on the 2020 campaign, the Carson-Newman Eagles swimming team defeated the Milligan Buffaloes by a combined team score of 381-141 Saturday afternoon. The men won 192-70 while the women came away with a 189-71 triumph.
“In a year like 2020, we don’t take anything for granted. We’re thankful to Milligan for coming and giving us some outside competition” head coach Jordan Taylor said. “The team rose to the challenge. We put it in a lot of hard work and once they saw Milligan coming in, they were fired up and ready to compete.”
C-N held a combined 200-61 lead over the Buffaloes at the midway point of the meet and never looked back. The men’s team was leading 103-28 while the women clang to a 97-33 lead over the Buffaloes.
Among many of the bright spots for the Eagles Saturday was freshman Chase Rayment (South Africa). His time in the 50 yd-backstroke to start off the 200-yd medley relay was good enough for 5th in program history, surpassing new assistant coach Ben Young’s time.
Since the team started practicing, Taylor has made it clear to this team to only worry about the present and what is in front of them. Taylor wants his team to put their best effort every time in the pool and to take advantage of the competitions they will have during this unprecedented year.
Individual highlights include stand out junior Joey Clemmer. Clemmer came away with individual wins in the 100-yd breaststroke and 200-yd breaststroke to help propel the Eagles to an early and strong lead.
“I feel like this year has given everyone the opportunity to reset. Personally, it shows me how fun it is to compete and is a good sign to compete with guys from other schools” Clemmer said. “Dual meets are all about beating the guys next to you and bettering yourself. Next week, all we can do is control what we can control and fix the small mishaps that appear along the way.”
On the women’s side, one of the biggest standouts was freshman Kyla Blakemore. Blakemore had impressive individual wins in the 100-yd backstroke and 200-yd backstroke to start her collegiate swimming career on the right foot.
“It was really cool to race again, especially being out of the water for much of this year” Blakemore said. “This was a nice opportunity to see where everyone is at and where we need to improve.”
UP NEXT
Both the men’s and women’s squads will continue the homestand to start the 2020-21 season on Nov. 14 as they welcome the Bulldogs of Wingate University to Jefferson City and the MSAC.
“Our victory highlights our strengths and depths. Winning is not only about events, but it is a team effort which takes more than one person to succeed.” Taylor said. “Wingate is one of the top teams in our conference. They’ll come here ready to compete and give us a run for our money and help us strengthen ourselves and find where we need to improve.”
Courtesy: Milligan Athletics
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. (Nov. 7, 2020) – Kaylee Williams, Gabby MacPherson and Stephen Gilbert accounted for five broken records as the Milligan University swimming team competed Saturday at Carson-Newman. Williams broke Milligan’s 100 breaststroke and 200 breaststroke records, MacPherson rebroke the 200 butterfly, and Stephen Gilbert reset the 200 backstroke and 200 individual medley records, winning both races as well.
“We had a very strong showing today against Carson-Newman, who would have finished 11th on the women’s side and 14th on the men’s side at the NCAA Division II national championships last year,” Head Coach Spencer Scarth said. “I have a lot of respect for Coach Taylor and for what he is doing with that program, and it was incredible to see some of the swims they put together, with some times surpassing times that we saw at our national meet last year.”
The day started with a highlight in the 100-yard breaststroke as Williams swam to runner-up with a time of 1:09.67. She followed 10 events later with a runner-up swim in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:30.63. Both times set a new Milligan record formerly held by Lindsey Grow in 1:10.58 and 2:33.66, respectively.
In between Williams’ record-breaking swims, MacPherson broke her own 200 butterfly record by one second, swimming 2:10.79. Previously, MacPherson held the record since the last time Milligan competed, when she swam 2:11.76 at the King Invitational one month ago.
Gilbert then wrapped up the meet with his record-breaking swims in the 200 backstroke and 200 IM. He swam 1:52.39 in the 200 back and, like MacPherson, broke his own record by swimming a hair faster than what he did in the season opener at the King Invitational (1:53.17). He won the 200 back by nearly eight seconds.
Gilbert followed eight events later with a 1:53.35 in the 200 IM, topping Sterling Burnett’s previous record of 1:57.51, set in 2017.
“We were fortunate to be able to have this meet given everything that is going on,” Scarth added. “Our team was very thankful for the opportunity. Our team responded well to the challenge of racing a team of their caliber, and I think we surprised them in a couple of events. We still have some work to do and some polishing of details, but we are set up very well for a great meet next weekend at Union, who won our conference last year and is currently ranked No. 10 in the coaches poll.”
Milligan competes one more time this semester, at Union next Saturday, Nov. 14, at 1 p.m. The Buffs will then break from competition until 2021 when they will finish their 2020-21 season in the spring semester.
Go Buffs!