When the men's and women's swim teams head down to the South Carolina coast, they generally expect a warm reception from their friendly rivals at the College of Charleston before competing in a close meet.
The good feelings may ebb, however, if the Cougars find themselves averse to losing by a large margin to a team that just two years ago barely beat them. The Blue Devils dominated Charleston last weekend, the men winning 160-71 and the women 172-69. The men's team improved to 4-2, while the women now hold an impressive 5-1 record.
"Charleston looked really good in the sprints and the relays," said coach Bob Thompson. "They really couldn't handle the distance though, and struggled in anything 200 meters or longer."
At Charleston, which boasts one of the few pools in the NCAA to be 25 meters in length rather than 25 yards, the races are measured in meters. The change in distance is nice for the swimmers, however, taking the stress for times out of their swims.
"The pool was a distance we're not used to swimming," said assistant coach Whitney Greene. "So it was nice to let everybody just get up and race without having to worry about their times."
With swimming in such a pool a rarity, Thompson joked that everyone had best times. Despite the strangeness of their surroundings, the swimmers still performed well enough to win 20 of the 26 events between both men and women.
The men were led by freshman Travis French, who placed first in both the 800-meter freestylestyle (8:57.39) and 400-meter freestylestyle (4:16.40).
Other freshmen wins included Trevor Yates in the 200 freestyle (2:00.30) and Conor O'Brien in the 100-meter freestyle (53.87).
Junior Chris Fleizach pulled double duty in the 200 butterfly and backstroke once again, winning the butterfly with a time of 2:11.20. He was beaten out in the backstroke by teammate Ryan Harsch, who placed first with a time of 2:11.80.
Senior Matt Lynch won the 200 individual medley in 2:16.63, while sophomore Ryan Spoon predictably finished first in the 200 breaststroke by seven seconds with a time of 2:23.83 to round out the individual wins for the men.
The women's team was led by its freshmen, as Lauren Hancock, Lauren Cornet and Amy Halligan each accounted for two of the team's six individual swimming wins, and Amanda Davis won the three-meter diving competition with 199.87 points.
Hancock won the 400- and 800-meter freestylestyles with times of 4:36.97 and 9:24.60, respectively. Cornet was the victor in the 200 freestyle, finishing in 2:12.06, and the 200 breaststroke in 2:42.90. Halligan touched first in the 200 individual medley (2:28.07) and 100 freestyle (1:01.58).
Senior diving captain Kristy Guenther won the one-meter diving, earning the day off Monday along with Davis as a reward for their wins from diving coach Kerri Norman.
The swimmers return to action on Saturday, when they head to Charlottesville to face Virginia.
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