Overcoming illness and physical exhaustion, the men's and women's swimming teams returned to competition after by sweeping William & Mary Saturday after their training trip to Florida. With most of the team sick after toughing out record low temperatures in unheated Florida pools, the Blue Devils were forced to rely on the depth of their young squad.
Despite these setbacks, both teams dominated the Tribe. The men won every event on their way to a 177-61 win, while the women took eight of 13 events to win 144-99. The men improved their record to 3-2 while the women moved to 4-1.
"They did a great job," head coach Bob Thompson said. "They were tired, they were sick, and really weren't prepared physically. We had a lot of close races, and we won them because we really got up mentally to swim."
Close doesn't even begin to describe the two victories from freshman Travis French. French
"I was very impressed with the way Travis swam both of those races," assistant coach Whitney Greene said. "He came home as fast as he went out, his last 100 yards was as fast as is first."
Conor O'Brien and Chris Fleizach were the men's other double winners. O'Brien won the 50 (21.67) and 100 (47.59) yard freestyles while Fleizach once again drew the difficult task of swimming both the 200 yard butterfly and backstroke for the Blue Devils. He won the butterfly in a time of 1:57.03, and returned five minutes later to win the backstroke with a time of 1:56.20.
"Fleizach was amazing," said Thompson. "Swimming fast enough to win the fly and coming back to do it again in the backstroke is tough. It was all in his finishes and he did a great job."
On the women's side freshman Lauren Cornet once again emerged as a double winner, claiming the 200 yard freestyle in 1:54.11 and the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:23.46. Senior captain Betsy Stewart won the top spot in the 50 yard freestyle, touching in a time of 25.47, while freshman Kate Lambertson won the 200 yard butterfly with a time of 2:11.89.
Diving captain Kristy Guenther had a good day as well. The senior held off close competition to win in both the one-meter and three-meter competitions.
Despite the lack of outstanding swims, both coaches and the team were happy with the win. In past years William & Mary had easily defeated the Blue Devil swimmers, but this year's reversal of roles serves to highlight the continued improvement of Duke's team.
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