By Andy Ross, Swimming World College Intern
Queens again dominated the third day preliminary session of the 2016 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships, but the race for second, at least on the men’s side, is getting more crowded.
Caroline Arakelian of Queens leads a stacked field in the 400 IM going into finals. Arakelian went 4:21.27 to lead teammate Patricia Castro Ortega at 4:23.60. 200 IM champion Sofia Petrenko of Wingate is third at 4:28.42. The meet record is Castro Ortega’s at 4:13.59.
Wingate’s Armony Dumur leads the 100 fly field with a 53.54 to set a new meet record. Hannah Peiffer of Queens is second at 54.75. Dumur could chase her NCAA record tonight at 52.42.
McKenzie Stevens of Queens leads the 200 free field with a 1:49.70 followed closely by Josephina Lorda of Queens at 1:50.00. Carson Newman’s Margaret Stansberry is third at 1:51.28 in what could be a very good race tonight.
Queens’ Brittney Phelan leads the 100 breast with 1:01.99 ahead of Shelly Prayson of Queens at 1:02.48. Phelan set the meet record which was a 1:03.10 by SCAD’s Liz Roberts from 2011. Wingate’s Jessika Weiss could be dangerous in the final as she sits third at 1:03.19. Weiss split 1:01.61 to Phelan’s 1:01.75 in the 400 medley relay last night.
Queens’ Peiffer is on top of the 100 back field with a 55.17. She is followed closely by Viktoriya Arkhipova of Wingate at 55.85. Peiffer could be chasing her meet record of 53.82 from 2014.
On the men’s side of the meet, Nick Arakelian of Queens posted the top time in the 400 IM at 3:50.80. He could try to chase down his meet record at 3:46.15 tonight.
In the men’s 100 fly, Enzo Pazos of Queens leads the field at 48.91. The next six finalists are all 49s and eighth is a 50.06 so it will be a tight race tonight in that event. Denis Schulz of Limestone is second (49.54) and Niklas Martin (49.57) of Wingate is third.
Dutch Olympian Dion Dreesens of Queens leads the 200 free field with a 1:35.42 ahead of three Wingate swimmers (Jerome Heidrich, Leif-Henning Kluever and Lennart Queiss) with 1:37s and 1:38s. Dreesens broke the meet record that was held by Matt Josa of Queens from 2015.
Rost Fedyna of Queens leads the 100 breast field at 54.12. Tobias Fiegl of Limestone is second at 54.63 and Ben Mayes of Queens is third at 54.85. Fedyna might be able to get the meet record which is 53.04 by former Norwegian Olympian Aleksander Hetland from 2009 out of former BMC member Tampa.
Queens’ Zach Phelps continued momentum from his conference record last night in the 400 medley relay with a top time in the 100 back. Phelps, who has no relation to Michael, went 48.82. Emile Kuyl of Johns Hopkins is second at 49.73 and Schulz of Limestone is third at 49.95. Phelps will be trying to better his 47.31 from last night.
The BMC scores 24 places, so the ups, mids and downs are posted below. On the men’s side, Wingate is solidly in second place with 444.5 points, Carson Newman is in third with 346 and Limestone is third with 318. Limestone though finished second in the 400 medley relay last night and used those stroke specialties to quietly have the best morning of any team besides Queens. They have eight A-finalists, five B-finalists and five C-finalists. Will they score enough points to pass Carson Newman? Probably. Will they catch Wingate? Maybe. That will provide a lot of drama going into the final day if it falls through.
Women’s Ups, Mids, Downs
Queens, 16, 1, 1
Wingate, 11, 4, 2
Carson Newman, 5, 9, 3
Johns Hopkins, 5, 9, 2
SCAD, 2, 7, 6
Limestone, 0, 4, 9
Catawba, 0, 3, 2
Converse, 0, 2, 1
Fairmont State, 1, 0, 3
Davis & Elkins, 0, 0, 4
Lenoir Rhyne, 0, 0, 5
West Virginia Wesleyan, 0, 1, 2
Men’s Ups, Mids, Downs
Queens, 14, 3, 0
Wingate, 9, 3, 3
Limestone, 8, 5, 5
Johns Hopkins, 2, 11, 3
Carson Newman, 3, 6, 3
SCAD, 2, 4, 9
Catawba, 2, 2, 3
Lenoir Rhyne, 0, 2, 3
Fairmont State, 0, 4, 4
West Virginia Wesleyan, 0, 0, 4
Davis & Elkins, 0, 0, 3
