The Duke men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams kicked off the 2014-15 campaign Saturday with a tightly-contested dual meet against ACC opponent Pittsburgh. The Blue Devil women posted a 162-138 victory while the men fell by a 170-128 score at the Panthers’ Trees Pool.
On the day, Duke swimmers and divers collected individual wins in 13 events, with sophomore Peter Kropp recording three first-place finishes and sophomore Maddie Rusch and freshman Isabella Paez both going home double-winners. The Blue Devils also swept all four relays to round out a strong season-opening showing on the road.
“We’re extremely proud of the way the teams performed today,” said head coach Dan Colella. “We knew that it would be a close competition, and they did what they needed to do. We were strong in events and capitalized in those events, going one-two and one-two-three and one-two-three-four. Where they were strong we were able to split them up, which is exactly what we needed to do on the women’s side.”
Rusch and freshman Leah Goldman finished one-two in both of the women’s sprint freestyle events, while Paez and sophomores Colleen Wixted and Brittany Friese swept the top three spots in the 200-yard butterfly, with Paez’s 2:00.96 clocking good for seventh on the program’s all-time chart. The Blue Devil women had similar success in the 100 butterfly, as Paez (55.49), Wixted (56.71) and junior Linsay Cooper (57.02) paced the field.
Duke collected wins in both backstroke events as well, with sophomore Jessie Sutherland taking first in the 100 (56.39) and freshman Maria Sheridan winning the 200 (2:03.87) in her collegiate dual meet debut. Fellow rookie Goldman also impressed in taking the top spot in the 200 IM at 2:04.38 and classmate Verity Abel headlined the distance group with a pair of second-place finishes in the 500 and 1,000 freestyle.
In diving, sophomore Kirby Quinn placed first in the women’s 3-meter springboard competition with an award of 277.20. Freshman MaryEllen Targonski posted the fifth-best 1-meter score in program history, earning 270.75 points in a second-place performance.
The women’s 200 medley relay of Sutherland, sophomore Ashleigh Shanley, Goldman and Rusch opened the afternoon’s swimming events with a first-place performance (1:43.80) while junior Chelsea Ye, Sheridan, Rusch and Paez combined to pick up a win in the 400 freestyle relay (3:30.25).
Coming off of a 53.15 performance in the 100 breaststroke at last weekend’s Blue/White meet, Kropp led the men with three individual wins against the Panthers. The Los Angeles, Calif., native turned in an NCAA provisionally-qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke at 54.26, followed by fellow sophomore Dylan Payne in second (56.82). Kropp returned to the pool later in the afternoon to touch first in the 200 breaststroke (2:01.13) and the 200 IM (1:52.78).
Sophomore James Peek added a first-place finish in the 50 freestyle (20.64), as did classmate Kaz Takabayashi in the 100 backstroke (49.61). Peek and Takabayashi teamed with Kropp and freshman Ryan Nicholson to win the 200 medley relay (1:28.65), while Nicholson, Peek, junior David Armstrong and senior Stefan Knight closed the meet by edging Pittsburgh in the 400 freestyle relay (3:02.17).
“The men had some outstanding performances, starting with the 200 medley relay going 1:28.6, almost a full second faster than last weekend,” Colella said. “That puts us up high in the national rankings and was a great way to get started there.”
Following this weekend’s action, the Blue Devils will resume competition Saturday, Oct. 25 and Sunday, Oct. 26 when they host UNC Wilmington and Virginia Tech, respectively.
