Duke swimming and diving prevailed, as the men and women claimed top spots in each of the springboard events, complementing the solid swims for Duke in their defeat of UNC-Wilmington. The Blue Devil women outscored UNC-Wilmington 187-108, while the Duke men defeated the Seahawks 165 to 128.
After Duke taking the women’s (1:44.27) and men’s (1:29.56) wins in the 200 Medley Relay, Blue Devil Freshman Lizzie Devitt brought home Duke’s first individual event win in the 1000 Free (10:32.70) ahead of teammate Lindsay Schlichte (10:36.51), starting the meet with a 1-2 sweep.
The UNC-Wilmington men responded, as Alex Sabau touched first in the 1000 Free with a 9:47.11, ahead of Blue Devil Marco Hosfeld (9:51.71).
Duke’s Brittany Friese lead a Blue Devil 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 Free, touching first in 1:53.78. Teammates Isa Paez (1:54.70) and Colleen Wixted (1:54.76) followed up, respectively. Duke’s Michael Miller took the Men’s 200 Free in 1:42.94 ahead of UNC-Wilmington’s Alex Labonge (1:44.36).
Blue Devil Chelsea Ye took home a win in the 100 Back (57.57) ahead of UNC-Wilmington’s Catherine Gargula (58.50). For the men, Duke’s Kazumu Takabayashi (50.65) out-touched UNC-Wilmington’s Valtteri Halonen (50.99) by a little more than three-tenths of a second.
Jenson Engen was UNC-Wilmington’s double event winner of the meet, with Engen taking home first in the 100 Breast (1:04.62) and 200 Breast (2:19.58). Duke’s Peter Kropp took home wins in both of the Breaststroke events as well, blowing the field away with a 54.52, in the 100 Breast for his second NCAA B cut. Kropp lead a 1-2-3 Duke sweep in the 200 Breast (2:02.98), ahead of teammates Victor Chen and Dylan Payne.
Freshman Blue Devil Verity Abel won the 200 Fly (2:05.95), while teammate Kenny Ng took home the win for the Duke men in the event (1:52.71).
The Duke men captured a tie in the 50 Free, with teammates Ryan Nicholson and David Armstrong both touching first in 21.25, just one one-hundredth of a second ahead of UNC-Wilmington’s Drew Gaertner (21.26).
Duke’s Kathryn Eckhart took the 100 Free (53.20) ahead of teammate Wixted (53.64) for a 1-2 sweep. 50 Free champion Nicholson (46.97) took second in the men’s 100 Free to UNC-Wilmington’s Adam Salzman (46.73).
“There were definitely some great performances,” Duke head coach Dan Collela said in a statement to Duke Sports Information. “One of the things that I was the most proud of wasn’t necessarily the times, but the way people raced today. We challenged them to swim some of their races a little bit differently than they have in the past and I think they did a really great job of that. It’s something that’s only going to help them continue to improve as we go forward.”
The Blue Devil women picked up 1-2-3 and 1-2-3-4 sweeps in the 1-meter and 3-meter springboard. The Duke charge was lead by Sophomore Maryellen Targonski in the 1-meter (290.18) and Sophomore Kirby Quinn in the 3-meter (310.05), both posting Zones qualifying marks. Sophomore Cole Plambeck swept both the springboard events for the men, scoring 300.23 in the 1-meter and 275.40 in the 3-meter. Plambeck’s score on the 1 meter was another Zones qualifying mark for the Blue Devil divers.
Read the full meet results here.
