The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
SWIMMING prospect, Denilson Cyprianos is set to take part in his first National Collegiate Athletics Association event after making the cut in the 200m backstroke event last month.
United States-based Cyprianos excelled at the Bluegrass Mountain Conference that saw him being selected as part of seven swimmers that will represent Carson Newman University (Jefferson City) at the NCAA Division II swimming conference scheduled for 17-20 March.
Cyprianos won a total of four medals at the BMC held last month where he came sixth in the 100m freestyle, was second in the 200m backstroke, attained fifth place in the 100 backstroke and also bagged another medal when the CN 4 x 200m relay team attained third position.
Medals were being awarded to the top six.
His feat saw him being ranked seventh in the NCAA Division II and he missed the CN 200m backstroke record by 0,2 of a second and the gold by 0,01 seconds.
Cyprianos said he will be looking at taking several lessons at his first NCAAs.
“I do not have big goals at the NCAAs this time around but as a new entrant I am hoping to take in a lot of lessons as I look to the future,” he said.
His brother Brandon, who is at Mars Hill University (North Carolina) and took part in the BMC said Denilson’s performance was outstanding as it is rare to see a freshman (first year student) especially one who is only two months into his studies come second and almost win a conference event by 0,01.
“I think he has settled in well with the team and he looks extremely focused and is working hard which is extremely impressive. I think we are going to see more good results from him,” he said.
“I didn’t perform bad, I got a best time in my 100 backstroke which put me 4th in the B final (12th overall) and my 200 backstroke was good and I was about 0,8s off my own school record which placed me 9th overall in that event.”
