The Duke swimming teams emerged from the Atlantic Coast Conference Championships last weekend proud of another tough performance. The meet, which ended on Saturday evening, was held in the Bobby E. Leach Center on Florida State's Tallahassee campus.
Being the only ACC team without swimming scholarships, the Blue Devils face tremendous odds every season. So not surprisingly, once again they returned home empty-handed. Nevertheless, with several athletes setting lifetime bests, head coach Robert Thompson was far from downcast about the meet.
"I'm very pleased about how our team performed, I think they swam very well," Thompson said. "Our goal every year is to swim better than we did the last year, to improve our times and set personal records."
"You have to race against the clock and for yourself," sophomore Abby Huggins said. "We realize that we're little fish in a really big pond."
In fact, the women's team took to the pool fairly hopeful of leapfrogging over Maryland. Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they came up short and lost out by only 13 points.
The men's cause against Georgia Tech was not helped by the disqualification of it's 200-meter medley relay team. Thus both teams had to settle for the cellar yet again.
Among the Blue Devils' best performers during the weekend were Heather Reger, Molly Brown, Scott Kammer, Phil Borden and Chris Cowger, all of whom set personal records.
In addition, Thompson also named Huggins the most improved swimmer on the team.
Reger, a sophomore, finished fifth in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:23.17 and sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke, touching the pads at 1:06.12.
Cowger, as a senior swimming his final meet as a Blue Devil, set three personal bests. The most notable of those was a 50.99 in the 100-yard fly.
"It was a good way to close everything out," Cowger said. "It's been tough but a lot of fun. I was happy with [the meet]."
North Carolina swept both the men's and women's titles without much difficulty.
The Tar Heel men finished with 781 points, 113.5 ahead of Virginia, who took second in both the final standings. UNC's women tallied 815, 81 ahead of the Cavaliers.
Duke's men finished with 130 points. The women's final tally was 197.
The championships mark the end of the Blue Devils' season, but according to Thompson, a break is still not on the cards.
"Some of them are going to come in this week to talk about the meet," Thompson said. "After spring break we'll start working again, maybe in the weight room."
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