Division II Meet Recap: Wingate Sees Closest Meet Of The Season

Photo Courtesy: Wingate Athletics

This was an exciting week for Wingate University, with the Bulldogs seeing two of the closest meets in Division II swimming this season when they took on Gardner-Webb University. Read about their meet and the GLIAC match-up from this week in this week’s Division II Meet Recap.

Wingate vs. Gardner-Webb

The meet between Wingate University and Gardner-Webb University lived up to our close predictions, as the meet ultimately came down to just one point. Gardner-Webb’s women’s team took the incredibly close meet by just one point, winning 103-102, while the men’s meet finished in a tie, 102.5-102.5. To have two meets that close is remarkable, and it was a tight contest from start to finish for both teams.

While Gardner-Webb had beaten both Wingate teams pretty convincingly earlier in the year at the Wingate Fall Frenzy Invitational, the dual meet format favored Wingate who has several top end swimmers. The men’s meet was as close as you can get, with Wingate winning 6 of the 11 contested events and coming up just short on depth points to pull out the win. The Bulldog men had two swimmers win multiple individual events that helped keep them in the meet. Senior Leif-Henning Kluver was first in the 200 IM (1:56.10) and the 200 backstroke (1:53.76), while sophomore Camden Wunderlich stepped up with wins in the 400 IM (4:07.82) and 500 free (4:42.63). Kluver was also the anchor on the Wingate 400 freestyle relay that won and ultimately tied the meet (3:09.14).

While the Wingate women lost the meet to Gardner-Webb by just a single point, they were the longer shot to winning the meet and put up a good fight throughout the competition. The Wingate women also won 6 of the 11 contested events, with a big push in the second half of the meet almost earning them the win. Wingate had a nice streak of wins in the later part of the meet, including a 1-2 finish by senior breaststroke duo Jessika Weiss (2:23.00) and Olga Kosheleva (2:24.22) in the 200 breaststroke. Heading into the 400 freestyle relay, Wingate needed a 1-2 finish to win the meet and almost got there. Their B relay was only a half second behind Gardner-Webb’s A relay, which gave them enough points to win the meet.

Wingate is currently ranked #7 (women) and #11 (men) in Division II according to the latest CSCAA Coaches Poll and will finish their season at a two day invitational meet at the University of South Carolina on January 27th before heading to their Conference meet on February 8th.

Wayne State vs. Findlay

Wayne State had a dominant performance last weekend to hold off GLIAC Conference rivals Findlay University. The Wayne State men took the win 157-77 while the women won 161-78. Wayne State is the defending conference champions and while Findlay is having a resurgent year still looks to be in a position to defend their title this season.

The Wayne State women were strong throughout the meet, posting wins in 14 of the 16 contested events on the women’s side. That included two event sweeps by the Warriors, first in the 100 butterfly with the trio of junior Makayla Myers (1:00.22), junior Abi Johns (1:00.63), and sophomore Delayni Kornak-Kotarba (1:00.90), Their second sweep came in the 500 freestyle, where the trio of sophomore Ellie Dean (5:16.31), freshman Theresa Riviera (5:24.61), and junior Meghan Lamb (5:29.79) took the first three spots to cement Wayne State’s lead. Sophomore Lezlie Bueno Estrada was the only double event winner for the Warriors, posting times of 24.51 in the 50 free and 53.97 in the 100 free.

The story was much the same on the men’s side of the meet, as Wayne State won every contested event. Freshman Ryan Katulski was a double event winner for the Warriors, leading a 1-2-3 sweep of the 50 free with a leading time of 21.56 and shortly thereafter taking the 100 free in 47.86. Also impressive was sophomore Ahmed Ahmed, who won the 1000 free (9:45.65) and 500 free (4:46.99) and freshman Sasha Palazzo, who won the 200 free (1:43.62) and posted the fastest time in the 100 breast (57.01).

Wayne State will finish off GLIAC dual meet competition with Saginaw Valley State this Friday and finish their dual meet season the following Saturday against Tiffin and Eastern Michigan. Findlay will be closing their dual meet season against Tiffin this Friday. Both Wayne State and Findlay will meet again at the GLIAC Conference Championships which begin February 8th.

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