No Record is Sacred on Day Two of Bluegrass Mountain Conference Champs

Special thanks to Michael Sanders of Limestone for adding color to SwimSwam’s coverage of the Bluegrass Mountain Conference championship.

Johns Hopkins opened Day Two of the BMC championship meet by blowing away the meet record in the women’s 200 medley relay. Taylor Kitayama (25.72), Pilar Shimizu (28.41), Kylie Holden (25.49), and Kylie Ternes (22.62) combined for 1:42.24, lowering by .31 the mark set by Wingate at last year’s meet. The Queens foursome of Hannah Peiffer, Emma Durante, Maddy Wallmon and Alexandra Marshall (1:42.53) was out front by a half-second through the 150, and both teams came in under the previous meet record.

Five minutes later it was Queens with a 5-second drop that smashed the men’s 200 medley relay record. The quartet of Matt Josa (22.16), Nic Eriksson (23.87), Evante Gibson (21.50), and Hayden Kosater (20.07) went 1:27.60, erasing the 1:28.54 record held by Limestone since 2009. They are now .35 off the NCAA DII record.

In the 400 IM, Caroline Arakelian of Queens bettered her own meet record (4:21.93) which she set this morning, winning the final in a NCAA DII “A” cut of 4:19.22. Arakelian pulled away from the field with a strong backstroke leg and ended up first by 7 seconds. Touching second was Samantha Fox of Johns Hopkins, just .05 ahead of third-place Rachel Hickey of Limestone.

Another meet record went down when Wingate’s Marko Blazevski hit the wall in the men’s 400 IM in 3:55.39, erasing Ossian Arvidsson’s 2013 meet mark of 3:56.19. Blazevski led wire-to-wire, but Dima Kozlov of Pfeiffer used his strong freestyle leg to secure second, in front of Wingate’s Oystein Fjeldberg.

Five events, five records: Peiffer of Queens was at it again in the 100 fly, using strong underwaters off the walls to drop another half second and better her own record from prelims (54.52) with a 53.95. Teammate Marshall came in second; Valerie Dembny of Wingate rounded off the podium.

Making it an even six, Josa of Queens re-broke the 100 fly mark of 47.88 that he had set in prelims with a blazing 46.60. That is exactly 1 second off the NCAA DII record. SCAD’s Mark Shvartsman took second and Wingate’s Evan Kolovich was third.

Not to be outdone, Anastasia Bogdanovski of Johns Hopkins followed suit with a new record of her own: her 200 free victory in 1:49.16 took another .32 off the record she had set in prelims. Bogdanovski took it out hard and looked like she may fade at the 100, as the others began to close in on her lead. She hung on and was able to keep the rest of the field at bay while re-breaking her own record. Wingate picked up second and third with Sofia Petrenko and Katie Pheil.

Leif-Henning Kluever of Wingate won a narrow victory in the men’s 200 free with 1:38.34. It was a tight race from beginning to end, until Kluever and his teammate Dylon Johnson (1:38.47) broke out during the last 50. Pasko Komadina of Fairmont (1:38.50) was right there with them but ended up with bronze.

The women’s 100 breast was very nearly a 1-2-3 sweep for Wingate. Jessika Weiss had a strong final 50 to secure the win in 1:03.30, just .20 shy of the meet record. Her teammate Olga Kosheleva was second, and Emma Durante of Queens got third.

Nic Eriksson of Queens dropped a second from prelims to win the men’s 100 breast in 53.45. The real battle was for second; Wingate’s Roman Kanyuka and Damian Smalls took second and third, respectively, just touching out Tobial Feigl of Limestone.

Queens’ Peiffer broke her second meet record of the night with a 53.82 in the 100 back. Breaking away from the crowd after the first 25, she again used her underwater strength to dominate. Peiffer went 1.02 under the previous mark, set last year by Johns Hopkins’ Kitayama, who finished second in tonight’s race. Third was Wingate’s Pheil.

In the men’s 100 back, Dima Turkin of Pfeiffer overcame a slow start and shaved a little off his morning swim, taking gold in 48.80. Zach Phelps of Queens finished just ahead of Wingate’s Tim Kniffler for second.

The 800 free relay featured another meet record from the women of Johns Hopkins. Sarah Rinsma (1:51.65), Kitayama (1:49.91), Fox, and Bogdanovski cruised to victory in 7:23.72. That was .16 under the old meet record, set by Kitayama, Rinsma, Ladd, and Bogdanovski last year. Queens took second, and Wingate finished third. Queens and Wingate broke their respective school records with their swims.

The Queens quartet of Josa (1:36.37), Ben Taylor, Felipe Oliveira (1:40.66), and Kosater (1:38.70) obliterated the meet record with 6:34.34. The previous mark of 6:37.14 was set by Wingate in 2013. They also broke the Queens school record by seven seconds. Second place went to Wingate and Hopkins took third.

Standings