Lile Continues Strong Campaign As Men Fall To East Carolina and Women Drop Meet Against East Carolina and Campbell
November 09, 2015 | Swimming
BUIES CREEK N.C. – Senior Nathan Lile continued to dominate in the early portion of this season collecting four wins for Gardner-Webb against East Carolina University, while sophomore London Schumacher swam well for the GWU women against East Carolina and Campbell University at the Johnson Aquatic Center this past Saturday in Buies Creek, N.C.
Lile individually took home the top times in the 50 free (21.08), 100 free (47.30), and 100 fly (50.86) sweeping all three events for the second straight weekend in the pool. Lile also swam the second leg of 200 free relay along with Connor Bos, Tyler Gomez, and Nicholas Dyer who all helped Gardner-Webb to a first place finish with a time of 1:24.95. The junior Bos also added to the Runnin' Bulldogs tally of top finishes this past weekend winning the 100 back with a time of 51.50.
Head Coach Mike Simpson had this to say about the GWU men' team performance this weekend, "We did not swim great Saturday, but the guys raced well and were competitive in almost every race. Nathan showed again this weekend how tough he is, and the biggest takeaway from this weekend is that it will help us to be ready for the Conference Championships come February."
Schumacher really shone this weekend in the pool having her best meet action of this young season winning the 200 IM from a time 2:20.35, placing in second in the 400 IM (4:29.02), and finishing fourth for the Runnin' Bulldogs in the 200 fly at the pace of 2:10.66.
Senior Giorgie Graves also swam well for Gardner-Webb as she placed second in the 100 fly at the time of 57.46 just under a second behind the winner of the event, as well as finishing fourth in the 200 free (1:56.34). Graves along with Kelsey Williams, Mackenzie Ropka, and Lili Tóth helped GWU to a third-place finish in the 200 free relay finishing at 1:41.24
Coach Simpson said that, "The effort is there for women, but we have to translate what great things we are doing in the workout sessions we have everyday to how we race on the weekends." He would go on to say that team wide, "It's time to start putting practice prep and meet performance together. I have no doubt that they will achieve this goal because everyone is working extremely hard and believing in the process."
The Runnin' Bulldogs will have a few weeks to work on that process before they return to the pool for competition on Friday, November 20 with the men's team traveling to face off against Wingate University, while the women's team will host Wingate here on campus Boiling Springs, N.C.
FINAL SCORES
ECU (M) 157-103 GWU
ECU (W) 175-81 GWU
CU (W) 154-108 GWU
