Men's Swimming | 1/13/2017 9:04:00 PM

Boiling Springs, N.C.----Only one point separated the Wingate University swimming teams from host Gardner-Webb University Friday night at Bost Pool on the GWU campus (complete results). The Runnin' Bulldogs claimed victory in the women's dual meet by a score of 103-102. The Wingate men and their GWU counterparts tied 102.5-102.5.
 
"We could not have scheduled a better opponent coming off training trip than Gardner-Webb," Wingate head men's and women's swimming coach Kirk Sanocki says. "We had some very close races. Even though WU and GWU don't necessarily have similar training styles, we both have the same approach to where we want to be at the end of the season."
 
#11 Wingate men 102.5, Gardner-Webb 102.5
 
Both senior Leif-Henning Klüver (Risum-Lindholm, Germany) and sophomore Camden Wunderlich (Snohomish, Wash.) won two individual races each for the visitors. In addition, Klüver swam the anchor leg for Wingate's victorious 400 Freestyle Relay quartet (3:09.14).
 
Klüver touched first in the 200 Individual Medley (1:56.10) and the 200 Backstroke (1:53.76). Wunderlich collected gold medals in the 400 Individual Medley (4:07.82) and the 500 Freestyle (4:42.63). Bulldog redshirt sophomore Lennart Queiss (Langen, Germany) won the 200 Freestyle with his triumphant time of 1:43.26.
 
Gardner-Webb women 103, #7 Wingate women 102
 
The visiting Bulldogs won four individual events and both relay competitions in the ultra-competitive dual meet. Wingate senior Academic All-America® honoree Vika Arkhipova (Seversk, Russia) led the way with one individual victory and two relay triumphs.
 
Individually, Arkhipova won the 200 Backstroke by almost five seconds with her gold-medal time of 2:04.97. She started her evening by swimming the first leg on Wingate's triumphant 400 Medley Relay squad (3:54.60). Arkhipova ended the long night swimming the third portion of Wingate's victorious 400 Freestyle Relay group (3:34.37).
 
Arkhipova's 400 Medley Relay teammates include graduate student Olga Kosheleva (Yekaterinburg, Russia) and freshmen Ebba Stillman (Huskvarna, Sweden) and Abby Kosic (West Chester, Pa.). In the 400 Freestyle Relay, Kosic got things started with sophomore Maria Madsen (Dragoer, Denmark), Arkhipova and junior Alex Divelbiss (Pueblo, Colo.) sealing the deal. Both Stillman and Divelbiss won individual events for the Navy Blue and Vegas Gold-clad Bluegrass Mountain Conference members.
 
Stillman touched first in the 200 Butterfly (2:05.80), while Divelbiss earned an individual gold medal in the 100 Freestyle (52.98). WU senior Jessika Weiss (Macon, Ga.) won the 200 Breaststroke with her triumphant time of 2:23.00. Teammate Kosheleva was second in the same event (2:24.22).
 
Wingate returns to action Saturday afternoon, visiting BMC rival Catawba College for its second dual meet in as many days. The first event in Catawba's Johnson Pool is slated for 1 p.m. "We had a good performance tonight for a January meet," Sanocki says. "We will race shorter events Saturday at Catawba. It will be very interesting to see how we bounce back."