From staff reports
After opening their seasons with losses against national powerhouse N.C. State last weekend, the men's and women's swimming teams competed against Navy Saturday at the Duke Aquatic Center.
The women (1-1) defeated Navy for the first time ever, while the men dropped to 0-2 on the season in a narrow loss to the Midshipmen.
The Blue Devil women, who are led by very strong freshman and sophomore classes and an experienced group of seniors, got off to a fast start in the medley relay with a 1-2 finish and never looked back, said head coach Robert Thompson.
Duke also had swimmers place 1-2 in the 200 freestyle and the freestyle relay. The Blue Devils swept spots 1-4 in the 1,000 freestyle.
Individually, freshman Sue Kresel won the 200 and 100 freestyle events and was on the winning freestyle relay team. Pam Morris won the breaststroke, Heather Reger took first place in the 200 IM and Kim Robertson won the 1000 free.
Freshmen Chandra Littooy and Jen Davis finished 1-2, respectively, in the backstroke.
"The girls swam really well," Thompson said. "The thing that happened was that they found themselves in a position to win and responded well to it."
One reason for the men's tough time against Navy was that senior Chris Cowger, the strongest performer against N.C. State last weekend, was sick for the Navy meet.
Scott Kammer won the butterfly for the Blue Devils and an all-freshman free relay team took first place, as well.
"We've got a really good men's team," Thompson said. "Next week against UNC-Wilmington and the next against Old Dominion that's going to show. We're a much better team than last year."
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