After disappointing losses to Virginia in their final home meet of the year last weekend, the Duke men's and women's swimming and diving teams rebounded Wednesday with decisive victories over their adversaries from Davidson.
Buoyed by an impressive start by their 200-yard medley relay team--made up of Kate Fay, Amy Halligan, Lauren Cornet and Jen Gauger--to kick off the meet, the women's team (2-6) cruised to 150-93 win over the Wildcats. The men's team (2-6) got off to a slower start, splitting the first four events of the meet, but extended its lead toward the end of the meet to win easily, 123-92.
"None of us really had phenomenal swims, but that's not really supposed to be happening this time of the season," Cornet said. "We're really focusing on ACCs, which is at the end of the month. A lot of the people--girls and guys--were really tired today, so we didn't have great swims. But we still raced really well."
The 200-yard medley relay team of Chris Fleizach, John MacDonald, Ryan Spoon and John Samotyj allowed Duke to draw first blood and Teddy Helfers followed up his teammates with victories in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle events.
Samotyj also proved to be a valuable asset for the Blue Devils, finishing second in the 50-yard freestyle and first in the 100-yard fly.
On the women's side, Halligan led the way, winning the 200-yard IM over Davidson's Melissa Marquez in a time of 2:11.47 and beating out teammate Paige Dommerich in the 100 yard fly.
Lauren Hancock also had a successful meet, taking home victories in the 1,000-yard and 500-yard freestyle event, while Cornet registered wins in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard breaststroke.
Both swimming teams return to action Saturday with their final regular season meet of the year against William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
"Having these dual matches gives us a good chance to see where our progress has taken us from the season and just gives us a chance to practice our events before they really count in the championship meets," Cornet said.
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