Men's Swimming | 1/14/2016 11:47:00 AM

Wingate, N.C.----The nationally-ranked Wingate University men's and women's swimming teams host Catawba College for Senior Night Friday in the Wingate Natatorium. The first event begins at 5 p.m. The Senior Night recognition ceremony will be held during the first break of the evening.
 
The Wingate women are the number four team in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America top 25 poll (tied with Grand Valley State), while the Bulldog men are number 10 in the same listing (Thursday, Jan. 14 CSCAA top 25 article). Last year, the Bulldog women finished third at the NCAA Division II national championship meet, while the Wingate men claimed 12th place, one point behind 11th-place Delta State (Miss.).
 
"Senior Day falls in place with our student-athletes coming down the home stretch…both athletically and academically," Wingate head men's and women's swimming coach Kirk Sanocki says. "Graduation is on the horizon, when they move on to the next chapter in their lives."
 
"We are very happy for them," Sanocki says. "A giant missing piece will be departing from our program. We are grateful for the entire WU community…they have helped prepare our seniors for the time when they will graduate and strut their stuff in the world."
 
Nine Bulldog seniors will be participating in their final home meet Friday. On the women's side, seniors include Laura Brannan (Kennesaw, Ga.), Armony Dumur (Amiens, France), Ana Fish (Carthage, N.C.), Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia) and Julie Wessler (Sprockhövel, Germany). For the Wingate men, seniors include Ossian Arvidsson (Kungälv, Sweden), Roman Kanyuka (Moscow, Russia) and Damjan Petrovski (Skopje, Macedonia). Bulldog student assistant coach Bailey Noel (Seaford, Del.) rounds out the Wingate senior class.
 
Pre-Christmas, the Bulldog men's and women's swimming teams both finished second in the Fall Frenzy Invitational at the Rock Hill Aquatics Center Dec. 4-6. After the Catawba meet, the Bulldogs visit the University of South Carolina to race the Gamecocks, Queens and Gardner-Webb Jan. 22-23. Wingate hosts the Bluegrass Mountain Conference (BMC) meet in the same Rock Hill facility Feb. 10-13.
 
"Athletically, the Catawba meet is another step in the process," Sanocki says. "We have completed our peak training of the season with our annual training trip. We are getting back to racing outside competition. We will find out what we need to do the next three-to-four weeks to prepare for the BMC meet and the NCAAs."
 
DID YOU KNOW?
 
Six of Wingate's 43 swimming student-athletes compiled a 4.000 term GPA during the fall 2015 semester. Twenty-two of the 43 posted a term GPA of 3.500 or higher, while 35 of the 43 recorded a term GPA of 3.000 or better. The Wingate women won the (friendly) term GPA competition with a 3.370 term GPA for the fall semester. The Bulldog men were close with a 3.332 term GPA.
 
Twenty Wingate swimming student-athletes have received Academic All-America® at-large team honors. Christy Cousins Bostic (Woodbridge, Va.) and Jessica Herman Hagan (Ashford, Conn.) were named to the second team in 2005, marking the first WU Swimming student-athletes to receive the prestigious honor from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
 
Both Marko Blazevski (Skopje, Macedonia) and Valerie Dembny (Bremen, Germany) were three-time Academic All-America® at-large team members. Last year, junior Lucas Cuadros (Cali, Colombia) and Class of 2015 members Issam Zeraidi (Brussels, Belgium) and Jasmine Arzadon (Lorton, Va.) received similar honors. Zeraidi is working on his Master of Accounting degree this year (at Wingate), while serving as a graduate assistant coach for the Bulldogs.
 
LOOKING BACK AT 2014-15 FOR WINGATE SWIMMING
 
Both Wingate teams finished second in the 17th annual Bluegrass Mountain Conference meet last February. The Bulldog women's swimming team ended the program's search for NCAA team hardware, as Wingate finished a program-best third at the 2015 NCAA Division II swimming and diving championships. The Bulldog men finished 12th, one point behind 11th-place Delta State (Miss.). Wingate's men have finished 12th (or better) at the NCAA meet 10 consecutive years.
 
Wingate senior Armony Dumur (Amiens, France) helped the Bulldogs claim two national titles at the 2015 NCAA Division II swimming and diving championships. Individually, Dumur won the women's 100 Butterfly with a new national record time of 52.42. Dumur and three teammates touched first in the women's 400 Medley Relay with a new school record time of 3:40.28. Dumur set her third 100 Fly national record of the day with her relay time of 51.99.
 
In the 2015 NCAA 400 Medley Relay, Dumur's teammates were senior Rita Koryukova (Omsk, Russia), redshirt junior Olga Kosheleva (Yekaterinburg, Russia) and junior Sofia Petrenko (Arkhangelsk, Russia). In addition to Dumur's new 100 Butterfly national and school record (in the relay), both Kosheleva and Petrenko set new school records in the 100 Breaststroke (1:02.12) and 100 Freestyle (50.19), respectively.
 
The two 2015 national titles give Wingate 21 national championship swims. Dumur is the third WU female to win an individual national title, joining diver Lindsey Taylor (2012) and swimmer Maria Vlashchenko (2008). The Bulldog 400 Medley Relay quartet is the first WU women's relay team to earn a national crown. The Wingate men's swimming program has 14 national championship swims, including three by 2012 Olympian Marko Blazevski (Skopje, Macedonia).
 
Seventeen members of the Wingate swimming program were Scholar All-Americans last year, as named by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA). In addition, both Bulldog squads received Scholar All-America team honors for the spring 2015 semester: the Wingate men with a 3.400 cumulative team GPA and the Bulldog women with a 3.375 cumulative team GPA.
 
WINGATE UNIVERSITY
 
Wingate University, consistently ranked as a top 10 "best value" in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves more than 3,100 students on three campuses in Wingate, Charlotte and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 35 undergraduate majors, 37 minors and career concentrations, numerous pre-professional programs, master's degrees in business, accounting, education, physician assistant studies and sport management and doctorates in pharmacy, physical therapy and education.
 
With a 15 to 1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life. To view current news, video and story ideas, visit www.youtube.com/wingateuniversity. 
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 22 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past nine years. For more information, go to www.wingate.edu.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing colleges in the 2000's with 82 selections. Among North Carolina's colleges and universities, Wingate's 82 Academic All-America® honorees are number one during this millennium. Wingate's 91 lifetime Academic All-America® picks are tops among all SAC schools. For more information on WU athletics, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.