The nationally-ranked Duke men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams collected first-place finishes in all but three events to dispatch Old Dominion (M-181-106; W-177-100) and William & Mary (M-164-108; W-181-87) Saturday afternoon at Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion. With the dual meet victories, the Blue Devil squads remained unbeaten on the season with matching 5-0 records.
The program concluded the dual meet portion of its fall season undefeated for the first time in school history.
“Because of our depth, I thought we could come away with wins, so the challenge was to really continue to be incredibly competitive from start to finish,” said head coach Dan Colella. “This is something we’ve been talking about all season long. Today they did a great job of being intense from the start to the finish, a lot of great performances. We mixed up the lineup and had some surprises from people in some events, so we’re just really proud of how they stood up and raced today.”
Freshman Maddie Hess continued to etch her name into the Duke record books in only her third collegiate meet, becoming the first Blue Devil female swimmer to break 54 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke. The Brandon, Fla., native earned a program and Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion record with her 53.95 performance, in addition to collecting an NCAA provisional cut in the event.
Hess turned in another record-breaking effort in the 200 backstroke, shattering the previous program benchmark of 1:57.54 with a 1:57.09 swim. She also broke her own pool record of 1:59.08 set two weeks ago against Florida State and Queens University.
“I feel awesome knowing that all of my hard work is paying off, and I definitely couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Hess said. “My mindset is to go out and execute everything that we’ve been practicing and just going really hard.”
Near the end of the meet, Hess returned to the water to split 50.34 as the leadoff on the Blue Devils’ winning 400 freestyle relay. The rookie and relay teammates Maddie Rusch, Chelsea Ye and Leah Goldman broke the facility record in the event at 3:23.33, a mark that ranked them sixth on Duke’s all-time performance list.
“Maddie has been working incredibly hard in the weight room – the strength gains she’s made have been phenomenal,” Colella said. “We’ve been waiting for her to pop some big swims. We’ve seen it coming because of what we’ve seen on a daily basis in her training, and I still think it’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
Another Blue Devil rookie, Hunter Aitchison, broke into the program’s all-time top 10 in the 1,000 freestyle. Her time of 10:15.46 ranked eighth overall and was the fastest among the Duke women this season.
Junior Kaz Takabayashi, junior Peter Kropp, senior David Armstrong and junior James Peek reset their own facility record in the 200 medley relay for the third time in as many meets. The group of 2015 NCAA qualifiers combined for a 1:26.73 clocking, marking the nation’s third-fastest time to date.
Duke’s divers made a clean sweep on the springboards, with freshmen Mackenzie Willborn and Evan Moretti taking first in both disciplines. Willborn garnered a season-best award of 298.73 on the 1-meter board for the fourth-best score in school history. Moretti joined Willborn in surpassing the NCAA Zones qualification standards in both competitions.
“It’s different – the dual meets having the swimming and everything going on,” Willborn said. “I’m not really used to it, but I really enjoy it. The energy is really high and it’s a lot of fun. I really like competing under pressure so it’s good to have that kind of atmosphere.”
Sophomore Isabella Paez won both of her individual races on the afternoon, taking the 200 butterfly in 1:59.70 and coming back to claim the 500 freestyle at 5:01.71. Freshman Riley Hickman lowered his season-best mark in the 500 freestyle at 4:36.61 and added a first-place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:39.97).
With the momentum gained in the early part of the season, the Duke men and women will look to wrap up the fall on a high note at the Nike Cup Invitational Nov. 19-21 in Chapel Hill, N.C.
