On Saturday, the men's and women's swimming teams both had rude awakenings, suffering defeats at the hands of UNC-Wilmington, 133-101 for the men and 137-101 for the women. The losses came as an unpleasant surprise for the Blue Devils, who had considered the Seahawks to be a formidable yet ultimately conquerable opponent.
"This is a meet we thought we had a shot at winning," senior Phil Borden said. "Wilmington turned out to be a better team than we thought it would be, and we got beat badly. It was a little bit demoralizing for us."
Despite the disappointing losses, some of the Blue Devils had outstanding meets. On the men's team, Borden, sophomore Mark Rotblat, and freshman Craig Macklin came away with victories in the 200 butterfly, the 200 breaststroke and the 200 freestyle, respectively. In addition, sophomores Andy Baldwin, Alex Thomas and Robert Nikander and freshman Brendan McGill combined to win the 400 free relay.
Freshman Catheirne Preston led the women's team, taking first places in both the 500 freestyle and the 1000 freestyle. Freshman Megan Kavanaugh won the 200 breaststroke, and the team of seniors Jen Davis and women's co-captain Sue Kresel and sophomores Jill Spitzfaden and Leslie King garnered the Blue Devil women's final victory in the 400 free relay.
Although Duke did not come away with an ideal finish, it feels positive about the level of effort that its swimmers expended on Saturday.
"Overall we competed at a good level," senior Ellen Gawalt said. "We raced hard, and we were ready to swim. They were just more ready for us than we were for them. We hoped to win, but we were satisfied with the team's attitude."
Right now, the Blue Devils believe that their strongest events are the butterfly and the distance races. Depth is another factor in Duke's favor, as both squads have several swimmers finishing close together in every event. Duke's cohesiveness, however, is perhaps its greatest strength.
"We're a really close team," women's team co-captain Whitney Greene said. "We're getting along well as a team, and we're training well together."
They will have the opportunity to work on their performance over Thanksgiving and winter break, their most rigorous training periods. During Thanksgiving, the Blue Devils will practice at Duke, and in late December, Duke will travel to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and train there for two weeks.
Although they have two meets between Thanksgiving and winter break, the bulk of their season, and many of their most important meets, will take place next semester. These intervals of intense training will give the Blue Devils the opportunity to hone their skills, work on the little things and further gel as a team.
In the meantime, Duke intends to transform its energy and desire into victories in the pool.
"We've shown an incredible amount of heart and dedication," Kresel said. "Hopefully it'll pay off soon."
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