Men's swimming Finishes 4th at Conference Meet

KINGSPORT, TN - The Columbia College men's swim team finished out their season over the weekend competing in the 3-day AAC Championships from Tennessee.

The men's 200 yard Medley Relay team started things off on Thursday evening placing 5th in 2:05 led by the team of sophomore Stefan Merkel in the lead leg followed by freshmen Thomas Remely and Noah Jackson and sophomore Jamal Johnson. Johnson also swam the distance race, the 500 Free and finished 12th in a time of 6:31.

Merkel then placed 13th in the 200 IM in a time of 2:28 while the 800 Free Relay team finished 4th in a time of 9:19 with Jackson in the lead leg swimming in 2:19, followed by Johnson who was also in 2:19, Merkel on the third leg in 2:21 with Remely touching in 2:20.

Milligan Univ. (TN) was in first place after day one, followed by Union (KY), WV Tech, Columbia and Pikeville (KY).

On Friday during day two, the Koalas started the day with the 200 Free Relay and finished 4th of 6 with a time of 1:46 with Jackson in the lead leg coming in at 27.1 followed by Remely at 26.1, Johnson at 27.6 and finally Merkel in the closing leg with the best time of 25.7 seconds.

Jackson then swam a time of 1:06 in the 100 Fly with splits of 30.3 and 36.6 seconds. Johnson then came in 7th in the 200 Free with a time of 2:16. Remely and Merkel both competed in the 100 Breast stroke as they placed 11th and 12th overall with times of 1:14 for Remely and 1:16 for Merkel.

The men's 400 Medley Relay team also finished 5th in 4:34. Merkel was the lead leg in 1:10 followed by Remely in 1:13, Jackson in 1:08, and finally Johnson touching in a team-best 1:01.5. CC had 151 points after day two, ahead of UP's 117.

Merkel then led off Saturday placing 16th in the 100 Free in a time of 57.7 seconds with splits of 26.9 and 30.7. Remely came in 11th in the 200 breast in 2:49 while the 400 Free Relay team came in 4th place as well in a time of 3:59. Merkel swam the final leg and had the best time of 56 seconds.

Milligan went on to win the conference meet with 1,000 points followed by Union (692), WV Tech (427), Columbia (188), and Pikeville (140).