The men's and women's swimming teams finished their home schedules this year with two final meets this weekend. Although the weekend started off with a loss to Virginia on Friday afternoon, both the men's and women's squads picked up their second win of the year against the College of Charleston on Sunday.
The Cavaliers downed the men's team 138-96, scoring first-place finishes in all but two of the 13 events. The only Blue Devils to finish in first place on the day were freshman Mark Rotblat in the 100-meter breastroke, and the 200 freestyle relay team, consisting of junior Doug Pierson, freshman Robert Nikander and sophomore David Tonini and Kevin Karpinski. Despite the lack of first-place finishes, head coach Bob Thompson was pleased with both teams' performances against the Cavaliers.
"We swam really well against Virginia," Thompson said. "We swam much better against Virginia in a losing effort than we did against the College of Charleston in a winning effort. We hadn't swum in a meet since Dec. 9, before finals. We were really pleased with the way we swam, both our guys and our girls."
The women's team managed to pick up four first-place finishes against the Wahoos, paced by senior Heather Reger, who gained two wins, one in the 50-meter freestyle and the other in the 100 breastroke. Freshman Leslie King outsted Virginia in the 500 freestyle, picking up another first-place victory for the Blue Devils. The 200 freestyle relay team of juniors Sue Kresel and Abby Higgins, freshman Jill Spitzfaden and King picked up the final first-place win for Duke. But the quick times of several other Blue Devils were what mattered to Thompson.
"The only thing that matters to us, really, are the times and the swims that we do in the events," Thomspon said. "We were very pleased with our Virginia meet."
Sunday's meet against the Cougars was less of a challenge for both the men's and the women's teams. The men downed the College of Charleston 123-73, while the women's team beat the Cougars111.5-81.5. Despite the scoring margin, Thompson said he felt his swimmers did not perform to their potential.
"We did swim a pretty strong meet, but we didn't swim all that well," Thompson said. "I think part of it was because of the Virginia meet, we were tired. The performances weren't that great, maybe [College of Charleston] didn't require them to be that good. We were pretty dominant in that meet. It wasn't our best effort of the year."
Although many of the swimmers didn't swim their best times, in most cases the times were good enough to down the Cougars. The men's team took first place in all but three events.
"College of Charleston--that's a different level program than we are, just as Virginia's a different level program than we are," Thompson said. "It was a big meet for us in that we had a lot of family here, a lot of our parents were here, it's our last home meet of the year. So we wanted to swim a pretty strong meet."
The women grabbed seven wins from the Cougars, led by junior Sue Kresel, who downed the Cougars in the 200 individual medley and the 100-meter freestyle. Senior Molly Brown won the 100-meter butterfly and joined freshman Juliane McDonald, senior Heather Reger and Huggins to take the 200-meter medley relay.
Even with some sub-par performances from his swimmers, Thompson feels the Blue Devils are on the right course for the Atlantic Coast Conference championships, which take place in early February.
The men's and women's swimming teams travel to Davidson for one final meet before the ACCs this Wednesday.
"Davidson is very much like us," Thompson said. "It's a program that's getting better and better and better. That'll be a big meet for us. If we're not ready to swim against Davidson, we'll get beat."
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