Royal Flush: Queens Breaks 3 NCAA D2 Records on Day One of BMC Championships

Bluegrass Mountain Conference – Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 11th – Saturday, February 14th, 2015, Prelims 10am/Finals 6pm (Saturday 5pm)
• Location: Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center, Charlotte, NC (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champions: Wingate (Women – 2nd straight), Wingate (Men – 7th straight) (results)
• Live Results: Available via Meet Mobile
• Live Video (Finals only): Available
• Championship Central

Everywhere you turned there were records falling. Queens swimmers broke five BMC meet records and three NCAA D2 national records, while Wingate swimmers accounted for two BMC marks.

It began with the Wingate foursome of Rita Koryukova (25.82), Olga Kosheleva (28.37), Jasmine Arzadon (24.69), and Ana Fish (22.41) who lowered the BMC 200 medley record by .95 with 1:41.29. Wingate pulled even with Queens, who had led the first half of the race, in the breast and brought it home with Fish’s anchor. Queens was also under the conference record with their second-place 1:41.60. Johns Hopkins placed third in 1:42.32, just off their 2014 record-setting pace.

Queens broke the meet record in the men’s 200 medley race by .55. Matt Josa opened with a blistering 21.57 backstroke. He was followed by Nic Eriksson (23.65), Evante Gibson (22.08), and Hayden Kosater (19.78) for a final time of 1:27.08. Limestone (1:28.67) took second, while Wingate (1:29.92) edged Catawba (1:29.95) for third.

Julie Wessler of Wingate led in the women’s 1000 free from start to finish, holding a strong and steady pace throughout the 40 laps. She came in at 10:03.38, 4.3 seconds under the meet record set last year by Meridith Boudreaux of Queens. Boudreaux finished third this year with 10:11.28. Her teammate Nikki Johnston was second in 10:07.67, also under the previous record.

Alex Menke of Queens won the men’s 1000 for the third year in a row. His 9:07.83 was more than 24 seconds ahead of the next-fastest competitors, teammates Jackson Kojima (9:32.28) and Kyle Kemp (9:32.97). Finn Furstenwerth of Catawba nearly caught the pair but just fell short, touching fourth in 9:33.13.

The Queens women put on an amazing show of speed in the 800 free relay. Patri Castro Ortega blazed to a 1:46.58 leadoff, breaking the meet record and the NCAA D2 record at the same time. Caroline Arakelian followed in 1:48.26; then came McKenzie Stevens (1:51.08) and Lillian Gordy (1:50.34). Together the quartet clocked a 7:16.26, more than 8 seconds under the previous meet record and 1.9 seconds below the NCAA D2 mark. Second place went to Wingate (7:24.45), who overtook Johns Hopkins (7:25.23) at the end.

Josa broke the meet record in the 200 free with his 1:36.22 leadoff for Queens’ 800 free relay. Nick Arakelian (1:35.59), Ben Taylor (1:37.26), and Kosater (1:38.16) finished the job and the Royals went 7 seconds under the BMC record with 6:27.23. They also broke the NCAA D2 record by a half-second. Wingate’s foursome of Leif-Henning Kluever, Ossian Arvidsson, Issam Zeraidi, and Jerome Heidrich (6:31.70) also came in under the old BMC mark. Limestone (6:39.09) finished third.

We promised you a fast BMC Championship, but we didn’t expect so many records to fall so quickly. Here are the scores after Day One:

Women

1. Queens University of Charlotte 247
2. Wingate University 189
3. Carson-Newman University 157
4. SCAD 113
5. Limestone Swimming 112
6. Catawba College 110
7. Johns Hopkins University 108
8. Pfeiffer University 94
9. West Virginia Wesleyan College 91
10. Fairmont State University 87
11. Davis & Elkins College 74
12. Converse College 69
13. Lenoir Rhyne University 39

Men

1. Queens University of Charlotte 215
2. Limestone Swimming 172
3. Catawba College 151
4. Carson-Newman University 142
5. Wingate University 122
6. SCAD 105
7. Davis & Elkins College 98
8. Pfeiffer University 96
9. Lenoir Rhyne University 96
10. Johns Hopkins University 94
11. Fairmont State University 93
12. West Virginia Wesleyan College 68

Results here