Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships, Day Four

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, February 19. THE Wingate University men’s swimming team captured its fourth straight Blue Grass Mountain Conference championship Saturday night, while the Bulldog women finished second to NCAA Division III power Johns Hopkins (Md.) University.

The Wingate men completed the four-day event with 732.5 points. The JHU Blue Jays had 647.5 points. Third-place Washington & Lee University had 438 points. Wingate head coach Kirk Sanocki received the Bob Busby Award for men’s Coach of the Year. Bulldog freshman Iaroslav Denysenko (Poltava, Ukraine) earned BMC Swimmer of the Meet laurels.

Johns Hopkins posted 796.5 points to take the women’s crown. Wingate had 707 points. The JHU Blue Jays edged the Bulldogs by eight points to take second place in the 2010 event. The Savannah College of Art and Design finished third on the 2011 team leader board with 418.5 points. JHU freshman Sarah Rinsma (Pittsburgh, Pa.) was named the BMC Swimmer of the Meet. Six-time NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year George Kennedy from Johns Hopkins won the Bob Busby Award for women’s Coach of the Year.

Denysenko won the distance triple crown, placing first in the 500, 1000 and 1650 Freestyle events. In addition, he helped Wingate place second (with an NCAA Division II A cut time) in the 800 Freestyle Relay. Denysenko wrote his name in the history books with meet records in the 500 Freestyle and the 1000 Freestyle.

On Saturday, Denysenko touched first in the 1650 Freestyle with an “A” cut time of 15:35.39. He obliterated the Wingate school record by nine seconds. Bulldog sophomore Cole Dutton (Surfside Beach, S.C.) was second with a “B” cut time of 15:39.38. Dutton also broke Wingate’s previous school high-water mark in the 1650. Freshman Marko Blazevski (Skopje, Macedonia) was fourth in the 1650 with a time of 15:51.34. Blazevski was also fourth in the 200 Butterfly with a time of 1:52.16.

Wingate freshman Tim Kniffler (Mulheim, Germany) won the 200 Backstroke with a time of 1:49.35 (B cut). In the morning preliminaries, Kniffler set a new school record with his 1:48.96 clocking. The Bulldogs were well represented in the 200 Backstroke finals, as three Wingate juniors finished third, fifth and sixth.

Santino Viselli (Windsor, Ontario, Canada) was third (1:51.58), Lee Sousa (Cornelius, N.C.) was fifth (1:53.91) and captain Danny Palmiotto (Brookfield, Conn.) was sixth (1:54.83). The three aforementioned times are NCAA Division II “B” cuts.

In the evening’s final event, Kniffler and Sousa were joined by sophomores Spencer Waganaar (Satellite Beach, Fla.) and Rory Julyan (Cape Town, South Africa) as the Bulldogs took the checkered flag in the 400 Freestyle Relay with a “B” cut time of 3:01.91. Julyan added a silver medal to his haul Saturday, placing second in the 100 Freestyle with a “B” cut time of 45.27.

Wingate sophomore Paige Schmidt (Clearwater, Fla.) opened the day by defending her BMC title in the 1650 Freestyle with a school-record time of 17:13.20 (B cut). She won the 2010 endurance race with a time of 17:16.42. The 2010 BMC Swimmer of the Year, Schmidt also won the 1000 Freestyle Wednesday. She finished fourth in the 500 Freestyle. Bulldog senior Kelsey Trabue (Dexter, Mich.) was fifth in the 1650 Freestyle Saturday, recording a time of 17:45.29 (B cut).

The Bulldogs finished two-three in the 200 Butterfly. Sophomore Elly Speer (Sydney, Australia) was second in a school-record time of 2:06.60. Senior captain Sarah Supcoe (Charleston, W.Va.) was third in 2:07.40. Both postings are “B” cuts.

The Wingate 400 Freestyle Relay team finished second with an NCAA Division II “B” cut and new school record time of 3:29.88. The quartet includes freshman Valerie Dembny (Bremen, Germany), senior Cheryl Vaccaro (Charlotte, N.C.), senior Nicole Moody (Grovetown, Ga.) and freshman Beatrice Svensson (Lomma, Sweden). The previous school record (3:30.28) was established in the 2010 BMC Championships.

Individually, Vaccaro was third in the 200 Breaststroke with a “B” cut time of 2:25.04. Svensson was third in the 100 Freestyle with a time of 52.27, also a “B” cut. Junior Malin Kersmark (Malin-Bjarred, Sweden) was fourth in the 200 Backstroke with a time of 2:08.98.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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