If you've ever doubted that hard work really pays off in the end, just take a look at the swim team.
After two weeks of training in Florida over winter break and continuing to practice at the same level upon returning to Duke, the Blue Devils finally had an opportunity to reap the rewards of their efforts in Saturday's meet against Davidson. Duke's women (3-5) came away with a 143-98 victory, while the men (2-7) were edged out by the Wildcats, 125-118.
"The women paid off a big dividend," Duke coach Bob Thompson said. "They won, and they won handily. The guys fought the whole way. There was a point when we were 21 points out, but we came back really strong. I couldn't have been happier with the way we swam."
The Blue Devil women garnered a plethora of first place finishes. Freshman Megan Kavanaugh won both the 200 individual medley and the 200 breaststroke, with times of 2:14.03 and 2:28.26, respectively. Senior Abby Huggins and sophomore Jill Spitzfaden also won two events apiece. Huggins took first place in the 50 freestyle and the 400 free relay, along with Spitzfaden, sophomore Leslie King and senior co-captain Sue Kresel. Spitzfaden also won the 500 free.
Freshman Catherine Preston swam her season best in the 1000 free, taking first in 10:32.91. Duke also swept the diving events, with freshman Molly Decker winning the one-meter diving and sophomore Catherine Robinette taking the three-meter event.
Although Duke's men fell short of overcoming Davidson, several of them swam their best races of the season. Juniors Marshall Preston, James Martens and sophomore Mark Rotblat earned both season best times and first place finishes in the 200 free (1:45.54), the 100 free (48.04) and the 200 breast (2:10.7).
Sophomore Chris Wise notched a victory in the 1000 free, finishing in 9:45.65. Preston, Martens, senior co-captain Phil Borden and freshman Craig Macklin combined to win the 400 free relay, with a time of 3:14.44.
"We showed that when we start training, we could do very well," Wise said. "The Florida training gave us the base we needed to swim fast.... We showed that we could be better than last year."
Because the Blue Devils' meet against Virginia was canceled due to a fire at UVa's pool, the meet against Davidson was only their second competition since returning from Florida. They believe that the months of rigorous training showed on Saturday, as several swimmers had the best performances not only of the season, but of their lives.
"This was our first real chance to see what the Florida training and the tough training we've done since we got back have done for us," Thompson said. "I couldn't have been more excited. We performed so very well. We won events, and our times were by far our best times of the year. We actually had a lot of people who swam lifetime best times unshaved and untapered, which is really a big deal."
Saturday's meet was Duke's last dual meet of the year. The Blue Devils will train hard for about another week before tapering, or decreasing their workload, in order to be well rested for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in late February. To prepare for the conference championship, they hope to work on refining the details of their races.
"I'd say our biggest weaknesses are the little things, like starts and turns," Kavanaugh said. "But we can improve on those, because they're the things that you work on right before a big meet."
Instead of focusing on its performance against opponents, Duke concentrates on improving its performances and beating the clock. As the Blue Devils head into the final stretch of their season, they feel that they are on the right track towards achieving their goals.
"All of our goals revolve around self-improvement, making sure we do better this year than we did last year," Thompson said. "We want to shave, take some rest and go to that conference meet and perform better than we've ever performed before."
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