Men's & Women's Swimming Selected as "Team of the Week"

Shreveport – The Centenary men's and women's swimming teams have been selected as Centenary Athletics' "Team of the Week" after they opened their seasons last weekend at home in impressive fashion as the Ladies and Gents recorded a pair of overall team victories over the McMurry University in two Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference dual meets on Friday and Saturday inside the Centenary Fitness Center.

Centenary won Saturday's meet by a combined team score of 168-160, with the women claiming a 92-69 victory and the men falling short, 91-76. The Maroon and White opened the season on Friday evening with a 158-132 victory with the men claiming an 82-66 win and the women winning 76-66.

Sophomore Hannah Waddell (Shreveport, La.) highlighted the Ladies' efforts and capped an impressive opening weekend as she claimed three more individual wins after finishing with three on Friday for a total of six in the two meets. She won the 400-yard IM (5:04.78), the 200-yard freestyle (2:11.93), and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.68). On Friday, Waddell won the 500-yard freestyle (5:49.82), the 200-yard breaststroke (2:34.32), and the 200-yard IM (2:21.55). She was appropriately named the SCAC Women's Swimmer of the Week on Tuesday.

Freshman Adam Stelly (Opelousas, La.) had an impressive collegiate debut for the Gents as he won the 200 IM (2:08.22) and was runner-up in the 100 free (50.73) in Friday's season-opening meet and was part of the team that won the 400-yard medley relay in a time of 3:47.96. On Saturday, Stelly won the 200-yard freestyle (1:52.55) and earned a top-five finish in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.30) as he was fourth.

Sophomore Reece Esser (Huntsville, Texas) won the 100-yard butterfly (1:03.57), earned a runner-up finish in the 50-yard freestyle (26.48), and finished third in the 100-yard backstroke (1:12.52). On Friday, Esser earned a pair of runner-up finishes in the 200-yard backstroke (2:25.82) and the 100-yard freestyle (58.24).

Freshman Bailey Allemeier (Altus, Okla.) earned her first collegiate win as she swam a winning time of 12:30.70 in the 1000-yard freestyle. Allemeier also earned top-five finishes in the 200-yard freestyle (2:14.12) and the 1---yard backstroke (1:14.29).

Sophomore Cicely Jackson (Lafayette, La.) finished as runner up in the 100 fly behind Esser as she swam a time of 1:10.14 and earned a third-place finish in the 50 free (29.39). Jackson was also runner up in the 1000-yard freestyle, swimming a time of 12:32.00. Sophomore Stacy Brown (Baytown, Texas) tallied three top-five finishes – fourth in the 100-yard butterfly (1:25.30), fifth in the 50-yard freestyle (32.13), and fifth in the 400-yard IM (6:18.86).

Freshman Ella Walton (Lafayette, La.) finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle (2:26.27) and 400 IM (5:50.37), and fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (1:14.60), freshman Isabela Vasquez (Lafayette, La.) finished as runner- up in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:20.75), and sophomore Kennadi St. Clair (Duncanville, Texas) finished third in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:26.67).

On the men's side, freshman Hunter Hedges (Murphy, Texas), and freshman Sake Stroderd (Sulphur, La.) each claimed individual wins and Hedges also earned a runner-up finish in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.94) while senior Antonio Barbee (Plaquemine, La.) earned a runner-up finish in the 100-yard butterfly (58.52).

Hedges won the 100-yard butterfly (55.93) and Stroderd claimed a win in the 50 free (23.22). freshman Trey White (Ball, La.) finished second in the 200 free (1:54.74) and Barbee finished fourth (1:58.70). White also earned a runner-up finish in the 1000-yard freestyle (11:06.20), ahead of freshman Noah Bannan (Mandeville, La.) who swam a time of 11:20.56 to finish third and Barbee was fourth at 11:31.03. Stroderd also earned a third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke (1:00.27) and freshman Kai North (Tyler, Texas) finished third in the 50 free (25.57).

The Gents finished third through fifth in the 400-yard IM - sophomore Ubaldo Ayala (Hallsville, Texas) was third (4:53.35), junior Jameson Feeney (Shreveport, La.) finished fourth (5:08.77), and freshman Cade Campbell (Ruston, La.) was fifth (5:15.20). Stelly was fourth in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.30), White was sixth (1:03.75), and Stroderd (1:07.29) and Ayala (1:10.57) finished third and fifth respectively in the 100-yard breaststroke. Senior Daniel Lewis (Alexandria, La.) finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly (1:00.98).

Centenary hits the road this weekend to face the University of the Ozarks Eagles in a pair of conference dual meets on Oct. 18-19 in Clarksville, Ark.

See the Ladies and Gents' complete season schedule here: https://www.gocentenary.com/sports/wswim/2024-25/schedule

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