Bluegrass Mountain Conference/ Conference Carolinas Championships – Men and Women
- Dates: Wednesday, February 6-Saturday, February 9, 2019
- Location: Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center – Charlotte, NC
- Defending Champions: BMC – Queens women (3x); Queens men (3x)/CC – Barton women (results)
- Live results on Meet Mobile: “Bluegrass Mtn and Conference Carolinas Champs”
- Live video (finals only): Available here
- Championship Central
- CC teams: Barton (M&W). Converse College (W), Chowan (M&W), King (M&W), Emmanuel (M&W), Lees-McRae (M&W)
- BMC teams: Carson Newman (M&W), Lenoir-Rhyne College (M&W), Queens University (M&W), Salem University (M&W), Savannah College of A&D (M&W), Wingate University (M&W). Catawba College (M&W), Mars Hill (M&W)
Day One – BMC
In the men’s meet, Queens came within .01 of the BMC meet record they set last year (1:26.19). Dima Sydorchenko led off in 22.84. He was followed by Jan Delkeskamp (24.14), Marius Kusch (19.83), and Brody Heck (19.39). Kusch was .43 faster than he’d been (20.26) on the 200 medley relay that won NCAAs with a new D2 record last March. Carson-Newman (Seth Hughes, Andrei Roman, Ivo Kunzle, and Chad Andoljsek) edged Wingate (Markus Furst, Giacomo Viazzo, Niklas Martin, and Lukas Kraft) for 2nd place, 1:28.39 to 1:28.50.
The Queens men did take down the BMC record in the 4×200 free relay, however. Alen Mosic (1:35.51), Kusch (1:34.43), Alex Kunert (1:34.80), and Skyler Cook-Weeks (1:38.94) combined for 6:23.68 to beat second-place Wingate by over 9 seconds. Kunert destroyed the BMC record in the 1000 free, the only individual event on the program. His 8:58.46 won the event by over 15 seconds and took a 6.4-second chunk out of the meet record. He is now 1.4 seconds off the NCAA D2 record in the event, and 8:57.06 set by Drury’s Mitch Snyder in 2009.
On the women’s side, the Royals got started with a medley relay win in 1:38.76 from Rachel Massaro (25.13), Shelly Prayson (26.83), Georgia DaCruz (23.97), and Kyrie Dobson (22.83), coming within .27 of the BMC and D2 records they set at this meet last year (1:38.49). Wingate’s Anna Miram (26.00), Anne-Sofie Nissen (29.02), Maike Hoener (24.70), and Sara Aringsmann (23.22) were runners-up in 1:42.94. Carson-Newman (Ksenia Naydenova, Gabby Aguiar, Elly Culp, and Lisa Postma) took 3rd over SCAD (Allie Rassenfoss, Sara Lacusky, Kaylen Hou, and Anna Kate McGinty), 1:44.95 to 1:46.14. The SCAD quartet came within 1 second of their runner-up time from 2018 NAIA Nationals.
Queens also won the 800 free relay. Francesca Bains (1:50.75), Josephina Lorda (1:48.08), Anna De Boers (1:52.26), and Lexie Baker (1:49.56) combined for a comfortable 7:20.65 over Wingate (7:24.27) and Carson-Newman (7:36.75).
Sarah Reamy of Queens won the 1000 with a new BMC record of 9:57.45. Bains, the old record-holder, came in second with 9:59.12, also under the previous mark.
Day One – CC
Barton College Bulldogs, in only their third year of existence, led both the men’s and women’s contests after the first session of swimming at the Conference Carolinas Championships. The women added a 1-3-5 finish in the 1000 free from Kleanza Cathers (10:49.47), Annika Jasek-Rysdahl, and Adie Powell to solid relay performances to amass 131 points. Cathers, Callie Burnette, Kazia Patzer, and Alayna Moore placed 3rd in the medley relay with 1:49.63, which is 1.5 seconds faster than the school record they established last year at this meet. They also finished second in the 800 free (with Nicola Macdonald, Addy Nemitz, Moore, and Cathers) in a program record of 7:51.00. All three of the top teams broke the CC meet record in the event.
Emmanuel College’s Allison Hunter (27.51), Julia Simioni (30.05), Yara Bouckaert (26.61), and Carmen Arnold (23.67) took 1.2 seconds off the CC meet record in the 200 medley relay, winning in 1:47.84 over Converse College’s Lisa Studstill, Cassidy Rindge, Sarah Russell, and Olivia Trent (1:49.04). Juana Mafla of Emmanuel finished 2nd in the 1000 free with a PB by 10 seconds (10:49.52).
Converse’s Hollie Porter (2:02.50), Tori Fulton (1:56.47), Studstill (1:56.46), and Russell (1:54.72) won the 800 free relay in 7:50.15, breaking the CC meet record by over 10 seconds.
In the men’s meet, Barton (Michael Cutidioc, Jaksa Gabric, Luis Reyes Morillo, and Harrison Strutz) won the medley relay in 1:32.93 over King and Chowan. That’s 3.5 seconds faster than they went at last year’s championships. Emmanuel’s medley relay of Thiago Rosa, Joao Santos, Rafael Mendes, and Alex Sobers were disqualified, but swam a time trial later in the evening, going 1:28.80. They set the school record and the Conference Carolinas record, and earned Emmanuel its first NCAA D2 national qualifying time.
Emmanuel senior Stanislas Raczynski won the 1000 free with 9:31.16, taking 15.7 seconds off the CC meet record set last year by Barton’s Robert Zamorano. Zamorano finished 3rd with 9:48.94. His teammate Jonathan York was runner-up in 9:44.17, also under the previous meet record.
Barton (Zamorano, James Day, York, and C.J. Spence) won the 800 free relay in 6:51.97. King (Juan Somoza, Maximillian Thomas, Jabari Ramsey, and Simen Vik) came in second with 6:58.57.
Women – Team Rankings – Through Event 6
| Bluegrass Mountain Conference | Conference Carolinas |
| 1. Queens University of Charlotte 131 | 1. Barton College 131 |
| 2. Wingate University 122 | 2. Chowan University 103 |
| 3. Catawba College 81 | 3. Emmanuel College 98 |
| 4. Carson-Newman University 71 | 4. Converse College 74 |
| 5. Lenoir Rhyne University 65 | 5. King University 71 |
| 6. SCAD 63 | 6. Lees-McRae College 26 |
| 7. Mars Hill University 50 | |
| 8. Salem University 22 |
Men – Team Rankings – Through Event 6
| Bluegrass Mountain Conference | Conference Carolinas |
| 1. Queens University of Charlotte 134 | 1. Barton College 153 |
| 2. Wingate University 125 | 2. Chowan University 86 |
| 3. Carson-Newman University 87 | 3. King University 79 |
| 4. Catawba College 70 | 4. Emmanuel College 52 |
| 5. SCAD 64 | 5. Lees-McRae College 45 |
| 6. Lenoir Rhyne University 55 | |
| 7. Mars Hill University 48 | |
| 8. Salem University 44 |
Since most of the time these Queens College studs transfer out, do we know if Kusch is looking to do that, if so where? and how much eligibility does he have?
Never mind… I see he is listed as a Sr, so I assume he is done with eligibility and will not be transferring anywhere.
Who has transferred out other than Matt Josa?
That Live Results link is popping…
Fastest fly split in NCAA this year?
In any NCAA division likely. Queens is DII.
Kusch is an absolute beast. His fly splits at the world short course were ludicrous too. Santos…someone’s coming for you!!!
UNC needs to hire Jeff Dugdale
Still not as impressive as the fact that he dates Kathleen Baker…
Have you seen what he looks like?
So an athlete has a great swim – and the first comments are about their love life and their looks. Wow! If this athlete was a female, I think people would be a bit outraged! I am disappointed by the comments and the huge number of up votes. Double standard it seems to me.
Great job Marius – keep up the good work!