Solid first day for Bulldogs at SCAD Invitational Thursday

Savannah, Ga.---- The Wingate University men’s and women’s swimming teams won three of the first four events of the Savannah College of Art and Design College Invitational Thursday night. The annual event is held at the Chatham County Aquatics Center.

The Wingate women were two-for-two, as sophomore Paige Schmidt (Clearwater, Fla.) set an Invitational record with her 1650 Freestyle-winning time of 17:15.75. Senior teammate Kelsey Trabue (Dexter, Mich.) was second at 17:58.81.

The Bulldogs set a meet record in the 800 Freestyle Relay for the second year in a row, as senior Cheryl Vaccaro (Charlotte, N.C.), junior Malin Kersmark (Malin-Bjarred, Sweden), sophomore Elly Speer (Sydney, Australia) and freshman Beatrice Svensson (Lomma, Sweden) posted a 7:46.16 victorious time. Second-place Converse (7:50.97) also broke Wingate’s 2009 record.

The Bulldog men completed a successful day with a triumph in the 800 Freestyle Relay. The winning quartet includes freshman Tim Kniffler (Mulheim, Germany), junior Lee Sousa (Cornelius, N.C.), junior captain Danny Palmiotto (Brookfield, Conn.) and sophomore Spencer Waganaar (Satellite Beach, Fla.). Wingate’s triumphant time was 6:56.75.

For the second year in a row, sophomore Cole Dutton (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) placed second in the SCAD Invitational 1650 Freestyle event. Dutton posted a time of 16:10.31, 13 seconds faster than his 2009 time (16:23.25). Wingate freshman Marko Blazevski (Skopje, Macedonia) earned third place with a 16:12.85 clocking.