Fear the turtle: Swimming teams lose handily to Terps

The men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened their season against Maryland in College Park Saturday. The Blue Devils struggled in both sides of the meet against the Terrapins; the men were beaten by a score of 155-77 and the women lost 146-91. The losses drop both Duke teams to a record of 0-1, while the Maryland men improved to 1-2 and their women's team to 2-1.

"Maryland lost a close meet to Florida State the day before they swam [against] us," senior Jen Gauger said. "They were really psyched up to avenge that loss and improve their record, so I think they were ready to swim very well against us."

The Duke women's team posted two victories in the contest, with wins going to sophomores Lauren Cornet and Kate Fay. Cornet won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.93, while Fay touched first in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing in 2:07.31. The meet was the first as a member of the Duke team for Fay, a transfer from Brown University who is expected to help the women's team in the backstroke events this year.

Junior Ryan Spoon led the men's team with their sole victory in the 200-yard breaststroke registering a time of 2:10.90. Spoon also swam the breaststroke leg of the second-place medley relay.

"We have some great swimmers who are capable of great swims," Spoon said. "It just didn't happen this weekend. People were overly sick, tired, etc., and unfortunately this meet just came at a bad time."

The men's team also took second in three individual events, starting with senior captain Chris Fleizach's finish in the 200-yard butterfly of 1:56.67. Sophomore Conor O'Brien touched second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.86, and freshman John Humphrey placed second in the 200-yard IM (1:57.39).

"We have a lot of work do," Fleizach said. "But there is a lot of potential energy on this team that can be converted to great swimming with the proper motivation and training."

The most exciting swim of the day came early in the meet, when Maryland freshman Elizabeth Lavell shattered a team record that had stood for 15 years in the 1,000-yard freestyle with her time of 10:02.17. The old mark of 10:08.82 was set by Laurie Hug in 1986. Lavell also won the 200-yard IM (2:06.95) and 100-yard freestyle (52.85).