The 2013 Wingate Fall Frenzy featured a lineup of predominantly Division II and Division III teams, with a few Division I programs (specifically Gardner-Webb, Georgia Southern, and College of Charleston) thrown into the mix, primarily from the state of North Carolina.
Team Scores:
Women – Team Rankings
1. College of Charleston 1492
2. Gardner-Webb University 1397
3. Queens University of Charlotte 1371.5
4. Georgia Southern University 1030.5
5. Wingate University 949
6. Carson-Newman University 489
7. University of North Florida 447
8. Catawba College 434
9. Pfeiffer University 187
10. Lenoir Rhyne University 151
11. Mars Hill College 144
12. Soka University 50
Men – Team Rankings
1. Queens University of Charlotte 1443.5
2. College of Charleston 1440.5
3. Wingate University 1049
4. Gardner-Webb University 877
5. St. Andrews 832
6. Pfeiffer University 686
7. Mars Hill College 541
7. Catawba College 541
9. Carson-Newman University 475
10. Lenoir Rhyne University 115
11. Soka University 57
Among the highlights of the weekend were the swims of Queens University freshman Matthew Josa. With more eyes on him than any Division II swimmer in the country, Josa excelled to the tune of a 1:49.72 in the 200 IM, a 3:54.95 in the 400 IM, and a 1:45.63 in the 200 yard backstroke. The latter of those two swims ranks him first in the country (by a hefty margin) in Division II this year, and his 200 IM puts him 2nd.
Among other impressive swims from Division II on the men’s side was a 48.51 from Pfeiffer freshman Dmytro Turkin, who was a 48.51 to win the men’s 100 backstroke (he was a 48.45 in prelims).
On the women’s side, though they didn’t quite have the depth to overcome College of Charleston, the Queens women put up a lot of really big times of their own. Hannah Peiffer swam a nation-leading, and NCAA Automatic Qualifying time, of 2:00.51 in the 200 fly.
She also won the 100 fly in 55.36, half-a-second ahead of Gardner Webb’s Giorgie Graves who was a 55.86, and the 100 back in 56.43.
Her sophomore teammate Caroline Arakelian was the only swimmer to knock her off in this meet, specifically in the 200 IM. There, Arakelian was a 2:01.41 ahead of Peiffer’s 2:02.46, which puts them by two seconds as the two fastest in Division II this year, and both under the FINA Automatic Qualifying standard.
The winning women from the College of Charleston broke a pair of school records at the meet. Senior Sarah Boyle was 3rd in that 200 IM in 2:06.52, the program’s all-time best. Taylor Hollingsworth was 4th in 1:05.46 for 4th in that race, which is another program record, behind Gardner-Webb’s race winner Charity Byrum.
The CofC women’s sprint group is largely what carried them to this win. They took the top two spots in the individual 50, with Sarah Graif touching in 23.43 and Jayme Groth just behind in 23.58. Though Queens won the 100 free with a 50.66 from Lillian Gordy, CofC took the next four positions, again led by Graif, this time in 50.70.
As a result of that depth, CofC won the 200 free relay, though Queens topped the other three.
As for Gardner-Webb, they had the best breaststroker at the meet. Charity Byrum swept the breaststroke races and broke a Meet Record in the shorter of the two races. As previously mentioned, her win in the 100 came in 1:03.66, to which she added a 2:21.01 in the 200.\
Congrats to St Andrews’ David Lambert in setting a new meet record in the 50 Freestyle with a 19.95.
Congrats to Coach Brooks Teal and his first-year squad for having a good meet, finishing fifth in the men’s team standings.