Both the men's and women's swimming and diving teams traveled to Charlottesville, Va., this weekend to face Virginia in a dual meet. The Cavaliers sunk both Blue Devil squads in the match, downing the men 126-101 and the women 128-104. The loss drops both the men's and women's team's records to 0-3 overall, and 0-2 in the ACC.
"It was hard to stay focused on winning," junior Lauren Hancock said. "It was about having fun and getting timed out there. Considering the past two weeks of practice we had and the four-hour bus ride down there, it went pretty well."
Because Virginia is the ACC's powerhouse in the sport and Duke does not give scholarships to swimmers--it is the only team in the ACC not to do so--the Blue Devils approached the meet as an opportunity to time themselves in certain events and to let some athletes try new events.
Despite the adversity, some Blue Devils did quite well against the favored Cavaliers. On the women's side, three Duke freshmen won their respective events: Alison Sundberg in the 100 freestyle (54.34), Julie Granger in the 100 backstroke (1:04.21) and Nora Strup in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.08).
Hancock scored nine points for her team with her 500 freestyle time of 5:14.12, and the 200 freestyle relay team of freshman Caroline Kluczkowski, sophomore Chrissy Anderson, senior Lauren Afflixio and junior Suzie Borgschulte scored eleven points for their efforts.
In the meet's other races, the men's team had five first place victories when the Cavaliers exhibitioned the final five events.
Junior Trevor Yates won the 100 freestyle (48.97) and sophomore Dave Peck, who is coming off shoulder surgery this summer and has not been able to practice every day yet, won the 100 backstroke (54.09).
Freshmen J.D. Wheeler and Ben Rowland won the 500 freestyle (4:54.10) and 100 breaststroke (1:00.62), respectively. The men's 200 freestyle team, composed of sophomore Teddy Helfers, freshman Joe Wiese, and juniors Matt Olmsted and Chris Brede, also placed first with a time of 1:29.16.
Up next for both Blue Devil teams is a meet against Towson and Old Dominion in Baltimore Saturday. Brede and Hancock think their teams have a good chance of breaking into the win column next week.
"We are really looking forward to racing a team we can compete with," Brede said.
"We are going up there a day early. So that will help. We will really just have another hard week of practice and get ready," he added.
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