Wingate, N.C.----Thanks to inspired efforts from a fine senior class, the Wingate University men’s and women’s swim teams picked up Senior Day victories over Pfeiffer University and Lenoir-Rhyne University Saturday at the WU Natatorium. The number 10 Wingate men topped Pfeiffer 130-65. The number 15 Bulldog women defeated Pfeiffer 77-18 and Lenoir-Rhyne 73-22. The LRU Bears defeated the Pfeiffer women 61-33.
The Bulldogs were led by their team-record 12 seniors; every senior took part in either a first or second-place finish in the double dual meet. Both Wingate teams are undefeated in dual competition entering next Saturday’s huge meet at Emory (Ga.) University. Wingate will face the host EU Eagles and Delta State (Miss.) University.
Leading the way for the Wingate women were seniors
Rebecca Gerbert (South Euclid, Ohio),
Lara Golesorkhi (Stuttgart, Germany) and
Samantha Vencl (Wickliffe, Ohio). Each senior earned an individual victory Saturday. Vencl won the 50 Freestyle and the 100 Breaststroke in her final appearance at the Wingate University Natatorium.
On the men’s side, the Bulldogs have nine departing seniors (the most in school history). Leading the way Saturday were All-Americans
Kyle Corcoran (Kent, Wash.) and
Mason Norman (Duluth, Ga.), both of whom had two individual wins each against the Pfeiffer Falcons.
Other notable senior performances came from
Kevin Hennessy (Yorktown, Va.), who won the 100 Breaststroke and was a part of the victorious 200 Medley Relay team. Classmate
Carlos Jones (Decatur, Ga.) placed second in the 100 Butterfly and was on the second-place 200 Freestyle Relay quartet.
Head coach
Kirk Sanocki was pleased with the team’s performance. “You have to be happy when your seniors can stay focused on each meet at hand, especially when its so easy to look ahead to the end of the year,” Sanocki says. “You can see by some of the individual performances that these guys were focused on the task at hand. I’m proud of them for it.”
Sanocki knows this is a special group. “Most of all, I am happy for each and every one of these kids for the effort and enthusiasm they presented today, especially after one of the hardest in-season work weeks we’ve ever had,” Sanocki acknowledges.
A ceremony for the seniors took place during a break in the meet. Each Bulldog senior was presented with a picture plaque from the Wingate University athletic department.
The Bulldogs will prepare hard for Saturday’s meet in Atlanta. Emory’s women are the number one team in NCAA Division III, while the Eagle men are number four. More notably, the Bulldogs will have a chance to see where they stand against fellow NCAA Division II powerhouse Delta State. The DSU teams are eighth (women) and fifth (men) in the
(Wingate University junior sports information student assistant
Daniel Hoagland contributed this article. Hoagland is a Chemistry major from Wilmington, N.C.)