The women’s swimming and diving team earned 41 points Thursday, as Duke dropped from fifth to 10th place at the ACC Championships after two days of competition.
The Blue Devils’ poor performance in the preliminary rounds yesterday morning placed them into C-Final heats, in which individuals are unable to score points.
“We had a little bit of a rough morning,” assistant coach Lauren Hancock said. “They came back tonight and swam a lot faster.”
More than a second quicker than her preliminary-round time, junior Katie Ness finished second in the 200-yard individual medley with a NCAA B-cut qualifying time of 2:02.07. Her performance earned Duke 17 points, its only individual points of the day.
The Blue Devils’ 200-yard freestyle relay squad, consisting of freshmen Danielle Spearman, Anna Rogers, and juniors Nora Stupp and Julia Lewis, placed seventh with a 1:36.07 time, scoring the remainder of the team’s points.
“We swam alright in the [preliminary] relay, and we were really pumped for the second,” Ness said of her teamates’ performance.
Despite the day’s low point total, the team recorded several personal best times. Jackie Rodriguez’s lifetime best 4:53.44 in the 500-yard freestyle earned her an NCAA B-cut. Spearman’s times in the lead leg of the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 200-yard individual medley were also lifetime bests.
Duke’s current meet total of 89 points trails N.C. State and Miami by only one point and Georgia Tech by one and a half points.
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