Diver Margo O’Meara Breaks Pool Record As Duke and Virginia Tech Split Dual Meet

Virginia Tech vs. Duke

• October 19, 2024
• Durham, NC
• 25 Yards (SCY)
• Scores
  • Women: #16 Duke, 165 – NR Virginia Tech, 135
  • Men: #9 Virginia Tech, 220.5 – NR Duke, 79
• Full Results: “Duke vs. Virginia Tech” on MeetMobile

The Duke Blue Devils split their home opener against ACC rivals Virginia Tech on Oct. 19. The Duke women beat Virginia Tech by 30 points, while the Hokie men claimed victory by 141.5 points.

Duke senior Margo O’Meara broke the 14-year-old women’s 3-meter pool record. She tallied 380.18 points, breaking the previous record of 377.87 points by 2.28 points. It’s the most points that O’Meara has scored as a member of the Blue Devils, and she remains the program’s second-highest performer on the 3-meter apparatus behind Abby Johnston—who held the previous record—and her 439.70 performance from 2010. O’Meara ranks #2 in program history on 1-meter and #3 on platform.

In the pool, Duke’s Kaelyn Gridley, who broke out in long-course this summer at U.S. Olympic Trials, collected two individual wins. She swept the breaststrokes, swimming 1:01.52 in the 100 breast and 2:15.64 in the 200 breast. Both times are faster than she was at this meet last season, with the latter checking in 2.11 seconds quicker.

Gridley also split 59.96 on Duke’s winning 400-medley relay. The Blue Devils turned to Ali Pfaff (52.94 back), Aleyna Ozkan (54.59 fly), and Tatum Wall (50.71 free) for their ‘A’ relay, and the squad beat Virginia Tech’s team by two seconds to open the meet.

Fresh off three backstroke PBs at the SMU Classic, junior Carmen Weiler Sastre continued her strong start to the season. She won two individual events, the 100 back and 100 free. Her 52.55 in the 100 back was a few tenths off her new personal best (52.17) and she swam 49.30 to win the 100 free. She also led off both the 400 medley and 200 freestyle relays, swimming 53.06 on her first 100 backstroke of the day then 22.94 on the freestyle relay.

Virginia Tech flexed in the mid-distance and distance freestyle events winning the 200, 500, and 1000 freestyle with three different swimmers. Emma Atkinson claimed the 200 free (1:49.77), Chiara Klein the 500 free (4:56.16), and Kate Anderson the 1000 free (10:05.99). They also won the 100 butterfly thanks to Athena Kovacs (55.26) but Duke won both relays and had multiple top-three podium sweeps that put the meet out of range for the Hokies.

Martina Peroni swam 2:00.79 in the 200 fly to lead a 1-2-3 finish along with Kyla Sommerstead (2:02.02) and Issie Abrajan (2:05.53). Duke also swept the podium in the 400 IM, with Audrey Portello catching Sommerstead on the freestyle leg and out-touching her, 4:22.24 to 4:22.64. Peroni finished third in 4:25.79.

The Hokies took control of the men’s meet early. Like Weiler Sastre, many didn’t match the speed they showed at the SMU Classic, a meet that historically produces fast early-season swims, but it didn’t matter as they still recorded top finishes to get the job done.

Carles Coll Marti was one of the swimmers who put on a show in Dallas. He followed up this weekend with 18 points, winning the 50 free (19.63) and 100 breaststroke (53.62). The Hokie men already own an ‘A’ cut in the 400 medley relay (3:04.85) from the SMU Classic. The same lineup was well off that time in Durham but still snagged the win. 2023 100 fly NCAA champion Youssef Ramadan led off with a 47.91 backstroke, Coll Marti split 53.57 on breaststroke, William Hayon swam 48.03 on fly, and Brendan Whitfield brought them home in 43.90.

Whitfield matched Coll Marti for the most points on the team with 18. The sophomore led the Hokies’ podium sweep in both the 100 free and 200 free. He won the 200 free first with a 1:38.68, then followed up with a 44.09 to win the 100 free.

Back in his premiere event, Ramadan swam 47.94 to win the 100 fly and took second behind Coll Marti in the 50 free (20.19) as Hayon finished third.

The Virginia Tech men swept the top three places multiple times as they cruised past the Duke men. Duke seniors Michael Jiang and Yugo Tsukikawa were bright spots for the Blue Devils. Jiang tied with Mario Molla Yanes to win the 100 backstroke in 49.07. Then, he won the 200 back outright, swimming 1:47.70.

In an exciting race, Tsukikawa battled with Luis Dominguez Calonge in the 500 freestyle. The pair barreled under the flags together, and at the tough, Dominguez Calone just got the better of Tsukikawa, 4:34.46 to 4:34.53.

Tsukikawa touched second in the 400 IM with a 3:59.43 behind Coll Marti’s 3:51.89, but the Hokies were swimming exhibition at that point in the meet, so the Duke senior took full points.

Up Next

Duke hosts South Carolina at 5 pm on Oct. 25. The Hokies are off next weekend, then head to Ohio State for a two-day dual meet Nov 1-2.