It did not take long for the men's and women's swimming teams to get back in the swing of things after their six week break when they hosted Davidson Saturday. The weaker competition did not hurt, either.
With some of their new neighbors - the K-ville faithful - welcoming them back to the pool, the women's team (5-4, 0-4 in the ACC) kept up its momentum from November's George Mason Invitational with a 140-97 win, and the men (2-5, 0-3) bounced back from their third place finish in Fairfax, Va. to trounce the Wildcats 146-58.
One of the many Blue Devils to take the top times on the day - Duke grabbed first in all 13 events - was junior Lauren Cornet, who dominated to the 200-meter freestyle and 500 freestyle by a wide margin in individual events, with times of 1:54.87 and 5:05.19, respectively.
"It was really nice to swim against Davidson because we haven't had a meet in a while, and it was nice to get back into the competing mode," Cornet said. "And individually, I was really pleased with the way I swam."
After spending four hours a day in the pool on a training trip to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. over winter break, most of the Blue Devils came out of the water sharing Cornet's sentiment. The junior's leg of the 400 freestyle relay along with those of Katie Ness, Julia Lewis and Alison Sundberg gave Duke another top finish as the women's quartet continues to strive for a 30-year-old school record in the 400 heading into ACC play.
The rest of that gang had solid days individually as well, with Ness taking the 200-meter butterfly in 2:04.56, Lewis topping out in the 50 freestyle at 24.96 and Sundberg grabbing the top mark in the 100 freestyle with a 54.10.
After a disappointing finish in the George Mason Invitational, the men's squad jumped all over the Wildcats thanks in bulk to sophomore John Humphrey, who won the 200 individual medley (1:56.07) and the 100 free (48.03) to go with a leg of the butterfly in the first-place 400 medley relay along with Justin Ward, Ben Rowland and Chris Brede.
"I think the 200 was probably my best race," Humphrey said. "It wasn't my best time of the year, but it was really good swimming for me, and I felt relaxed back in the pool after a helpful trip to Florida."
In addition to the great swimming performances, Tim Hyer took home the diving honors for the Duke men in the one-meter and three-meter competitions.
Duke might need to tense up a bit more, though, when it travels to face UNC-Wilmington and their healthy crop of short-distance swimmers on Saturday afternoon.
"It'll be closer because they have some really good sprinters," Humphrey said. "I think we're going to have to step it up a notch this weekend."
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