It's not easy to compete with a juggernaut, especially for Duke, the ACC's only non-scholarship swimming and diving team. When the Blue Devils faced off against Virginia Saturday at Taishoff Aquatics Pavillion, the end result was never in doubt. Going into the meet, the Cavaliers possessed the nation's 11th best men's team and the No. 17 women's squad. In spite of superior competition, the Blue Devils performed admirably--the Duke men lost by a score of 145-83, while the women fell to Cavaliers by a 124.5-111.5 margin.
"[Virginia] swam really fast, and we had some really great swims," Duke assistant coach Lynzee Sharp said. "They provided great competition for us, which made us swim faster. [Virginia head] coach Bernardino has a close friendship with Coach Thompson, and he could come in and just run us into the ground, but he doesn't. He tries to match up his swimmers with ours and make it a somewhat competitive meet. I think they had fun."
That jocular atmosphere manifested itself in the men's 400 IM event, a one-team exhibition race that pitted five Duke swimmers against each other. The five Blue Devil finishers were met with a sarcastic cry of "One-Two-Three" from the Duke bench, a taunt that was met with good humor from the Cavaliers.
But obviously, the meet was far from fun and games for Duke. Perhaps nothing was more indicative of the Blue Devils' frustration than the results of the women's 1000 freestyle. In it, freshman Jackie Rodriguez broke her own Duke record with a time of 10:13.00. Despite her performance, Rodriguez could only muster a third-place finish, approximately five seconds out of first.
The Blue Devils, however, were victorious in five events in the women's side of the meet. Katie Ness highlighted the competition, continuing her impressive comeback from injury with dual wins in the 200 IM and the 100 butterfly. Rodriguez also continued her dominance in the breaststroke by capturing victory in the 100-yard event.
In the men's competition, Teddy Helfers and Kevin Arthofer finished first in the 500 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, respectively.
"We expected this to be a blowout right away, so UVA tries to fix their lineup so we get some good swims," Helfers said. "But this year was the first year that we actually got a chance to really compete with them."
The Blue Devils have two more meets--one at William & Mary and one home against the College of Charleston--before the ACC Championships. The Duke coaches believe their squad is right on track to finish the season strongly.
"This year will probably be our fastest year ever [in ACCs], because we've been training so hard," Sharp said. "They've been swimming so fast, that when they start to come down in yardage and taper and shave, then they'll drop some good times. So I think they'll do really well."
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