The women's swimming team completed its season in good form, setting five new school records and numerous personal best times at the ACC Championship in Charlottesville, Va., this weekend. The University of North Carolina successfully defended its title, winning the meet for the second year in a row with 823 points. Host Virginia claimed second at the meet with its total of 639.5 points, while the Blue Devils scored 159 to place seventh.
"The ACC is one of the top swimming conferences in the nation," senior captain Liz Boswell said. "For us to compete so well there shows how Duke has really risen to a new level this year. Everyone swam well in the morning preliminary session, but those that made it to the evening finals really stepped up to amazing performances."
The meet began on a high note for the swimmers, as the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Lauren Cornet, Amy Halligan, Jen Lee and Betsy Stewart set a new school record with their time of 1:37.26.
After a good start the Blue Devils also competed well in the 200-yard individual medley placing three swimmer in the top 24. Freshmen Amy Halligan and Lauren Hancock made the consolation finals, with Hancock finishing 12th in a time of 2:06.40, while Halligan placed 13th in 2:06.42. Paige Dommerich also had a great swim in the meet, earning 20th place in the bonus finals with a time of 2:09.71. Despite a series of amazing swims, the first day ended on a sour note for the Blue Devils. In the final event, a relay team of Stewart, Cornet, Hancock and Halligan swam fast enough to set a new 400-yard medley school record, but were disqualified by a questionable false-start call on an exchange.
In the first event of the second day, Hancock, Cornet, Dommerich and Stewart teamed together for the 200-yard medley relay, setting a new record with their time of 1:46.69. Another school record was broken early in the finals session when Freshman Lauren Cornet finished 4th in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:02.79.
The 100-yard butterfly was Friday's best event for the Blue Devils, as all five of their swimmers recorded personal best times, broke the one-minute mark, and placed in the top 24. In the bonus finals Dominique Lauren Afflixio placed 23rd with a time of 59.73, Dominique Ramirez was 21st in 59.49 and Halligan finished 17th, posting a 57.46. Dommerich and Hancock broke into the consolation finals, tying for 14th place in a time of 53.83.
Later, Sophomore Kristina Koehler posted a personal best time in the 100-yard backstroke, finishing in 1:02.24. Later in the weekend she swam another personal best time in the 200-yard backstroke with 2:08.78.
"These are the best times I've swum at Duke," said Koehler. "It's really nice to finish a season with a top performance, it makes all the hours of training worthwhile."
The final event of the second day redeemed the Blue Devil relay of the night before. Captain Liz Boswell anchored the 800-yard freestyle relay as she combined with Cornet, Hancock and Halligan to set a new school record of 7:38.88. The squad also finished sixth in the event, the first time that the Blue Devils have defeated another school's relay team in years.
On day three Lauren Cornet improved her school record in the 200-yard breaststroke to 2:16.18 to finish fourth. Her swims over the weekend earned her consideration for an NCAA Championship invitation in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events. The NCAA will make its invitation announcements on March 1.
The final individual event of the meet was also Duke's most outstanding. In the 200-yard butterfly, all 6 Blue Devils swam fast enough to reach the evening finals. Hancock led the group with her 11th place finish (2:05.32), and was followed closely by Halligan, who placed 15th in a time of 2:06.55. Afflixio dropped over 2.5 seconds from her morning swim to clock 2:08.86, and was joined by Dommerich (2:09.61), Kate Lambertson (2:09.64), and Lindsey O'Connell (2:11.63) to place in the Bonus finals.
For the divers, captain Kristy Guenther placed 15th in the one-meter. Amanda Davis placed 15th in the three-meter dive and 17th in the one-meter, while fellow freshman Jeanne Dewitt earned 19th in the one-meter.
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