Two members of the Duke swimming team had the opportunity to live the dream of thousands of young athletes across the country this past summer. Juniors Ryan Spoon and John Samotyj traveled to Fresno, California to swim in the Phillips 66 Summer National Championship, the fastest long-course meet held inside the United States. At stake were slots on the U.S. National Team at this year's Goodwill Games, to be held in Brisbane, Australia later this month.
Competing against scores of Olympians and national record holders, the Blue Devils faced a very intimidating atmosphere under the 110-degree California sun. Fortunately, it was something they were able to overcome, posting personal best times and amazing themselves and their coaches.
"I was certainly awestruck when I first arrived, being surrounded by such fast swimmers and amazing athletes," Spoon said. "After a while I started to get used to it, though. I've swum with some of these guys at meets before, and I just got lost in the excitement of it all."
Spoon's road to Nationals began with his summer team, the Curl-Burke Swim Club in Washington, D.C. He traveled with his team to the University of Maryland for a local meet in mid-July, rested, shaved and determined to earn a qualifying time for the Summer Championship. Missing the cut in the 200-meter breaststroke by a mere three-tenths of a second, Spoon struck gold in the 100-meter race. Not only did he make his cut, but he also posted a new pool record in the same facility where this year's ACC Championship will be held in February.
"I won my heat, made the cut, and set a new pool record," Spoon said. "That was really cool, but I only held it for about two minutes. Then Ed Moses from Virginia got up in the next heat and broke the record I had just set."
It is always a gamble for a swimmer to rest in the middle of the season, before his final meet, but it paid off for Spoon. After biding his time for three days waiting for a chance to swim he exploded off the blocks at Nationals, posting a personal-best time of 1:05.05 to place 14th in the morning preliminaries. Later that evening he returned to compete in the finals, finishing 16th with a time of 1:05.51.
Perhaps motivation from his summer teammates helped. Three of them joined Spoon in the finals, including his friend Jarrod Mars, who won the event and a slot on the U.S. National Team at the Goodwill Games with a time of 1:02.05.
"Ryan has worked really hard to become an elite athlete," said Duke assistant coach Whitney Greene, who traveled to California for the meet. "It is amazing that he could go out and make it into the finals in his first time swimming at Nationals."
Samotyj made his way to Fresno swimming on three relays for his summer team, the Palo Alto Swim Club. He swam the third leg of the 400-meter freestyle relay, splitting a 52.94 in his 100 meters as his team placed 14th with a time of 3:33.07. The versatile athlete took up the butterfly leg of the 400-meter medley relay, splitting 57.95 and helping his team earn 18th place in 4:01.70. Samotyj also swam on the 22nd-placed 800-meter freestyle relay.
"John's splits were really impressive," Greene said. "He is going to improve a whole lot this year and will definitely be one of our top sprinters."
The swim team begins training again today in preparation for their first meet of the season Oct. 20 against Maryland.
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