This past Friday and Saturday, the Emory men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams hosted Birmingham Southern College (Ala.) and Rhodes College (Tenn.) for the Emory Invitational.
The Emory men impressed with a total 237 points, defeating the Birmingham Panthers’ 55 points on the men’s side. The Emory women’s team beat the Panthers 379 to 49 points. Rhodes’ team did not place, only having one athlete compete.
“Birmingham is a relatively new program, and I commend them for coming after our team,” senior Mckenna Newsum-Schoenberg said. “They didn’t have their whole team there, and we did, so we definitely had the advantage. But, it was a fun, cool environment to have everyone cheering for each other, no matter which team. It was a supportive environment to get some last cuts before the NCAAs.”
The Emory Invite was the last chance to get cut times for the NCAAs. Emory invited Birmingham so that the cut times would count for the NCAA, not necessarily to compete with the Panthers, sophomore David Tao said.
“The main focus was getting those cut times, not to compete against Birmingham,” he said. “Now that people gained those cuts, practices are going to go up [in intensity] for a little, but before the NCAAs we will calm down a bit and rest for the competition.”
Emory also racked up 17 NCAA ‘B’ cut times at their last meet before going into the NCAA Championships next month.
Seven Eagles on the men’s team captured the ‘B’ cut times. Freshman Michael Grenon and junior John Galvin led with two ‘B’ cut times each. In the 100-yard backstroke timed trial, Grenon swam in 56.51 seconds, and got his time down for the finals, coming in first with a time of 56.30 seconds. In the 200-yard butterfly timed trial, Galvin swam a 1:51.82, and also got his time down for the finals, winning with a time of 1:50.17. Many freshmen added the other ‘B’ cut times. Freshman Oliver Smith recorded a 20.71 seconds timed trial in the 50-yard freestyle. Freshman Aaron Schwartz added a cut time in the 100-yard breaststroke timed trial, finishing in 57.14 seconds. Freshman Brandon Shinsato recorded 1:49.74 minutes in the 200-yard backstroke. Freshman Wes Duke added with his 1:51.33 time in the 200-yard backstroke preliminaries. Senior Kevin Flood also contributed with his 1:51.98 time in the 200-yard butterfly.
Freshman Rebecca Upton led the Emory women, recording ‘B’ cut times in both the 400-yard individual medley preliminaries, placing second with a 4:29.20 time, and the 100-yard butterfly, finishing first in the finals with 56.95 seconds.
Junior Mikayla Carnley added a provisional qualifying time in the 200-yard backstroke timed trial with a time of 2:03.73. Freshman Ming Ong also contributed in the 200-yard butterfly timed trial with a 2:05.28 time. In the 400-yard individual medley preliminaries, Newsum-Schoenberg (4:26.49) and senior Nancy Larson (4:36.36) each contributed a qualifying time.
Freshman Phoebe Edwards with her 2:05.37 time in the 200-yard backstroke and senior Lexi Tutor’s 2:24.29 time in the 200-yard backstroke each qualified as well.
Besides the cut times and qualifying marks, Emory placed first in all but five event finals. Other first place finishes were by Carney in the 500-yard freestyle (5:03.33), junior Megan Freeman in the 200-yard individual medley (2:10.02), senior James David in the men’s 200-yard individual medley (1:59.32) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:15.98), freshman Kike Afolabi-Brown in the 50-yard freestyle (24.32 seconds) and the 200-yard freestyle (1:53.34), freshman Ollie Smith in the men’s 50-yard freestyle (21.28 seconds), freshman Alexandra Brown in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.27), freshman Sia Beasley in the 100-yard backstroke (58.62 seconds), junior MacKenzie Brosnahan in the 100-yard freestyle (52.48 seconds) and freshman Alex Hardwick in the men’s 100-yard freestyle (46.33 seconds).
The Eagles now await the announcement of which swimmers have been selected to swim at the 2015 NCAA Division III Championships. Selections will be announced tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb. 25) at 10 a.m. on ncaa.com, with an unofficial psych sheet due later that day. The NCAA Championships are scheduled for March 18 through 21 in Shenandoah, Texas.
“It’s definitely a confidence booster to go into the NCAAs with a big win like this,” Newsum-Schoenberg added. “We still have a few weeks before the Championships so we will keep up the good work and get in some good practices.”
The women’s team has won the NCAAs for the past five years in a row, while the men have had nine third-place finishes at the Championships.
“It’s very humbling to have that legacy of wins, it has set us up for where we are now,” Newsum-Schoenberg said. “But, every meet is a new meet, every day is a new day, and we will go in with confidence, but not too much confidence because you never know what could happen. Plus, everyone else is working just as hard as us so it will be a challenge.”
Emory’s divers will be back in action on Friday and Saturday in San Antonio, Texas for the NCAA Region Two Diving Championships.
Eagles Dominate at Last Meet Before NCAA Championships
Junior John Galvin swims in the butterfly event at the Emory Invitational. Galvin added two NCAA ‘B’ cut times, helping the Emory Eagles win the invite against Birmingham Southern College (Ala.). The Eagles now are preparing for the NCAA Championships. | Courtesy of Emory Athletics.
Junior Mikayla Carnley swims at the Emory Invitational. Carnley secured a provisional qualifying time in the 200-yard backstroke for the NCAA Championships. The Championships will be held next month, with the Eagles training hard until then. | Courtesy of Emory Athletics
