By Andy Ross, Swimming World College Intern
Patricia Castro Ortega followed up her 200 free NCAA record last night with a solid 4:53.24 to lead the Women’s 500 free prelims. It does not look like any of the other finalists will challenge Castro Ortega, but the 4:43.37 NCAA record could be in jeopardy. Castro Ortega set that record last year. She also holds the meet record that is in serious jeopardy (4:45.89).
Nick Arakelian leads the way in the Men’s 500 free for Queens at 4:30.27. Wingate though got the best of the top 8 with four finalists in the event. The meet record is Arakelian’s at 4:20.49.
Sofia Petrenko of Wingate leads the 200 IM field at 2:02.54 ahead of Caroline Arakelian of Queens at 2:02.78. Arakelian holds the meet record at 2:00.21 from last year.
Inigo Alarcia of Queens leads the men’s 200 IM field with a 1:48.87 as the top five seeds plus one more are all from Queens. Wingate had no top 8 finishers while Johns Hopkins had the other two A-finalists. The meet record is held by Matt Josa of Queens and is not expected to go down tonight.
In the Women’s 50 free, it was Armony Dumur of Wingate who posted the top time at 23.35. Shelly Prayson of Queens was second at 23.41 and Ana Fish of Wingate was third at 23.47. Carson Newman’s Natalie Burnett has the meet record at 22.95 from 2014.
Zach Phelps of Queens leads the 50 free field with a 20.33. He is followed by Tobias Feigl of Limestone (20.50) and Ben Mayes of Queens (20.54). 19.64 is the meet record held by Craig Jordens of Limestone from 2009.
The 400 medley relay will be tonight.
The Bluegrass Mountain Conference scores to 24 places so the normal “ups and downs” gets transformed to “ups, mids and downs.” ‘Up’ means you are in the A-final, ‘mid’ means you are in the B-final and ‘down’ means you are in the C-final. Below are the ups, mids and downs from Thursday’s prelims. Meet results can be found on meet mobile.
Women’s Ups-Mids-Downs
Queens, 9, 5, 1
Wingate, 6, 4, 1
Carson Newman, 6, 3, 3
SCAD, 1, 4, 4
Johns Hopkins, 1, 5, 5
Catawba, 1, 1, 0
Limestone, 0, 2, 4
Lenoir Rhyne, 0, 0, 2
Davis & Elkins, 0, 0, 1
Converse, 0, 0, 1
West Virginia Wesleyan, 0, 0, 1
Men’s Ups-Mids-Downs
Queens, 11, 4, 0
Wingate, 6, 5, 2
Johns Hopkins, 3, 4, 2
Carson Newman, 2, 3, 6
Limestone, 1, 3, 6
Catawba, 0, 1, 3
Lenoir Rhyne, 0, 1, 0
Fairmont State, 0, 3, 1
SCAD, 1, 0, 4
