Atlanta, Ga.----The Bulldog swimming teams took a trip to Emory University Saturday to face the Division III Eagles and fellow Division powerhouse Delta State (Miss.) University. Both Wingate teams were riding an undefeated season coming into the weekend and were faced with the challenge of facing two top five nationally ranked teams. Both teams suffered a defeat but valuable experience was gained in swimming some of the fastest swimmers in the nation.
The Wingate men’s swimming team pulled off a great upset over the fifth-ranked Statesmen of Delta State 146-125. Wingate looks forward to seeing the Statesmen later this year at the NCAA Division II championships. In a tri-meet setup that included the always-powerful Emory Eagles, Wingate seniors
Gus Chagas (Recife, Brazil) and
Mason Norman (Duluth, Ga.) helped the Bulldogs come up big in the short distance races.
Both Bulldog All-Americans earned two individual victories. Chagas touched first in the 100 Butterfly and 200 Freestyle, while Norman claimed the 50 and 100 Freestyle titles. Wingate freshman
Rory Julyan (Cape Town, South Africa) finished in the top four in each of his individual races, while senior
Guilherme Veiga (Vinton, Va.) was second and third in the 1650 and 500 freestyle races, respectively. The Bulldogs battled to the last race against the Emory Eagles, but the hosts prevailed 156-114.
On the women’s side, the Bulldogs were led by juniors
Cheryl Vaccaro (Charlotte, N.C.) and
Nicole Moody (Grovetown, Ga.). Vaccaro won the 200 Breaststroke. She took home a second-place showing in the 200 Freestyle. Moody finished second in her signature race, the 100 Backstroke. She added a sixth-place finish in the 200 Backstroke and an eighth-place finish in the 50 Freestyle. In addition, freshman
Elly Speer (Sydney, Australia) won the 500 Freestyle. The women came up short against the Eagles 151-105 and the Statesmen 169-98.
Every race was extremely competitive and featured multiple national level swimmers in every event. The Bulldogs gained valuable race experience and look to put it to good use in the Blue Grass Mountain Conference championship meet (Feb. 17-20) and the NCAA Division II national championship meet (March 10-13).
(Wingate University junior sports information student assistant
Daniel Hoagland contributed this article. Hoagland is a Chemistry major from Wilmington, N.C.)