Men Second, Women Third at ASC Championship
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. – Twelve NAIA national cuts were made and three school records fell on the first full day of the Appalachian Swim Conference Meet hosted by Union (Ky.) College at the Stivers Aquatic Center. Asbury’s men sit in second place and the women are third heading into the final day on Saturday.
The evening session saw the Eagles place 17 in the top-8 including three in the women’s 200 yard backstroke. Ranay Ray took 4th in the event followed by teammates Katie Duncan (5th) and Claire Houlton (7th). The men saw similar success in the 200 IM as Jimmy Hall led three swimmers in the top-8. Hall set a new school record with a time of 1:56.67, placing 4th. Trevor Ehrenheim took 6th and Stuart Iverson took 8th.
Other standouts during the evening session were Claire Houlton and Daniel Bowman. Houlton headed into the 500 yard freestyle finals with the best prelims time and finished 2nd in the evening swim. In addition to her 7th place finish in the 200 back, she got her NAIA cut in the 200 yard free after splitting a 1:59.59 in the lead leg of the 800 yard free relay. The team went on to finish 3rd in the relay. Bowman also took home a 2nd place finish, placing behind Patrick Chadowski in the 200 fly. He also took 6th in the 500 free.
Graham Duncan made his NAIA cut in the 500 yard free, finishing 8th. On the women’s side Kayley Valentien placed 7th in the 500 free. Duncan also placed behind Bowman in the 200 fly, taking 4th. In the women’s 200 fly the Eagles had two top-8 finishers as Caitlin Gagnon (4th) and Leah Fanning (7th) took home the honors. The men’s 200 back saw both Trevor Ehernheim (3rd) and Stuart Iverson (7th) finish in the top-8. Cody Barnes set the school record in the 100 breast with a 59.26.
In the relay events the women took 3rd in both the 200 and 800 yard free events. The men took 4th in the 200 free relay and 6th in the 800 yard free relay. Tyler Decker led off the 200 free relay with an NAIA cut for the 50 free event. Jimmy Hall also got his 50 free NAIA cut in the B relay of the 200 free race.
In the morning prelims the Eagles made eight NAIA cuts and set one school record. Cody Barnes set a new school record in the 100 yard breaststroke, turning in a 59.62 in the morning swim. National qualifiers included Claire Houlton (500 yard free, 200 yard back), Rebecca Landry (100 yard breast), Ranay Ray (200 yard back), Stuart Iverson (200 yard back), Ruth Klein (100 yard free), Jake Courey (100 yard free) and Graham Duncan (200 yard butterfly).
On Thursday there were four swimming events and all four diving events held during one evening session. The women’s 400 free relay placed 4th while the men took 5th. In the 1650 yard free event Kayley Valentien took 3rd while the men placed three in the top-8. Daniel Bowman led the way with a 4th place finish followed by Nolan Houlton (6th) and Graham Duncan (8th).
Saturday is the final day of competition with a morning prelim session set to begin at 9:30 am followed by the evening finals to start at 6 pm. Live video will be available for the final session only and can be found here.
