The men's and women's swim teams had opposite results at a meet at Old Dominion on Saturday.
The women's team with its 116-51 victory won its third meet in a row and raised its record to 3-1. The men lost by a 132-109 margin, dropping their record to 0-4.
The women's team dominated its meet, coming in first in every event except the two dives, both of which yielded a second-place finish.
The top performer for the women was freshman Sue Kresel, who won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:12.01 and was on the winning medley relay team.
Head coach Robert Thompson said that he was very pleased with Kresel's performance.
"Sue swam very well," Thompson said. "She is already among the best swimmers we've ever had here at Duke."
Some other top performers for the women were sophomore Molly Brown, who won the 200-yard butterfly in 2:13.44, and senior Kim Robertson, who won the 500-yard freestyle in 5:16.63.
The men's team, which is short on depth to begin with, was further hurt by the absence of two of its top swimmers, senior Chris Kirby and freshman Chris Bollinger.
Bollinger was at the US Open swimming invitational, while Kirby was at a job interview.
Freshman diver Peter Mockrill turned in the top individual performance for the men, winning both the one and three-meter diving events.
The medley relay team, consisting of Doug Pierson, Phil Borden, Chris Cowger and Jed Stremel also won its event.
Another top performance was put forth by Thayer Thompson, who came from far behind in the 500-yard freestyle to lose by just .13 of a second, finishing in 4:53.34.
Cowger also placed second in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing in a personal best time of 2:00.36 and losing just by .24 of a second. Thompson said that he had mixed feelings about Cowger's results.
"Chris had no concentration on his last stroke and was out-touched at the end," Thompson said. "However, he also had his best unshaved time in the 200 [individual medley]."
Thompson said that he was more or less pleased with the way the men performed.
"They competed real, real hard," Thompson said. "We had trouble with their top guys. We came in two through four in a lot of events."
With the high level of competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Thompson said that it was important that both the men's and women's teams have good efforts against non-league opponents like Old Dominion which is closer in talent to Duke.
"Old Dominion is very much like us," Thompson said. "Teams such as Old Dominion, UNC-Wilmington and East Carolina are teams we compete well against, and are big meets for us. It's important going into a dual meet and knowing you have a chance to win. Anytime we win in a Division I situation is a good win for us."
Next up for the swim teams will be a conference matchup against traditional rival North Carolina on Wednesday.
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