The Duke swimming and diving program opens 2017 by competing in three consecutive dual meets, beginning with a home meet against South Carolina Saturday at 11 a.m. in Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion.
Last Time Out
The Blue Devils will be back in action for the first time since a Dec. 3 dual meet at Queens University of Charlotte. In that meeting, Duke swimmers claimed 18 of 24 individual events and swept all four relays to defeat the Queens men and women.
Sophomore Mickayla Hinkle and freshman Alyssa Marsh helped pace the Duke women to a 169.5-87 victory as double individual event winners. Hinkle swept both women’s backstroke events while Marsh claimed the sprint races, headlining a 1-2-3 sweep by the Blue Devils at the 100-yard distance. The men’s team defeated the Royals by a 146-111 margin behind a balanced team effort. Senior Peter Kropp (55.01) and sophomore Max St. George (1:46.05) each posted NCAA ‘B’ cuts in winning the 100 breaststroke and 200 backstroke, respectively.
Midseason Report
Both Duke squads sit at 4-1 on the year heading into the second half of the season, with the women holding a 1-1 record in ACC action and the men an 0-1 ledger. The men’s and women’s teams have both appeared in the national rankings this season. The most current College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) poll has the Blue Devil women at No. 23.
Duke swimmers have earned NCAA provisional cuts in a combined 21 events so far in 2016-17, while the women have eclipsed program records in six events, including two relays.
“A lot of folks on the team are swimming faster than they ever have at this point in-season,” said head coach Dan Colella. “Every year, we seem to take it up a notch in terms of our competitiveness. The caliber of athlete that comes in every year continues to improve. The bar gets raised every year and people are rising up to it. And as a result, I think they’re a little bit more dialed in, they’re a little bit more focused. With that, we’re seeing better results.”
Blue Devil divers have surpassed NCAA Zone Diving Championship standards on each of the three disciplines. Sophomore Evan Moretti is fifth in the ACC with a score of 365.70 on the 1-meter board and also ranks sixth in the conference on the 3-meter (381.90).
“They’ve added some new bodies who have added some energy,” Colella said. “Nate Hernandez is a real dynamo and has been a real catalyst in terms of getting people excited and training hard … You see programs across the country in different conferences who win conference championships based on their depth in diving. There’s definitely been an upswing in their performances, so we’re excited to see what they do in the next three weeks.”
Blue Devils Head South for Winter Training
After finishing up final exams and celebrating the holidays at home, the Duke swimmers and divers embarked on their annual training trips. The swimming teams headed to Aruba and the divers to Puerto Rico for several days of intense training in and out of the pool. The Blue Devils also used the time away to bond with their teammates.
“It’s definitely a week of a lot of hard training,” Colella said. “Their full focus is swimming. It enables us to take it up a notch for that seven to 10 days of training. It’s our final really big push before we come back and get into the final stretch of the season. At the same time, we do some different team-bonding activities.”
Scouting the Gamecocks
The South Carolina women are 1-3 and the men 0-3 following a dual meet against SEC foe Tennessee Jan. 6. The Gamecock divers were also in action early in 2017, with junior Julia Vincent earning SEC Women’s Diver of the Week recognition after winning the 3-meter event at the Tennessee Diving Invitational. Vincent also swept the springboard competitions in the dual against the Volunteers.
In swimming, the South Carolina men feature two student-athletes ranked top-35 nationally in the 1,650 freestyle, led by Ahmed Mahmoud at No. 12 (14:55.31). Teammate Nils Wich-Glasen is top-15 in both the 100 (52.75) and 200 breaststroke (1:54.86). On the women’s side, Emma Barksdale enters the weekend ranked top-25 in the 400 IM (4:10.83).
“[Their men] are very strong in the distance events,” Colella said. “We’ve got some great distance swimmers who are absolutely going to be challenged. They have a great breaststroker, some good IMers. I think what you’re going to see is a score that’s going to go back and forth throughout the course of the meet. If everybody steps up to the plate and swims hard this weekend, I think it’s going to be a meet that goes right down to the 400 free relay. On the women’s side, South Carolina is much improved. Very strong mid and distance free, so that should be very competitive. Any time you swim an SEC school, you need to be prepared. South Carolina is also known to have great divers. I know our divers will feel and experience the same as the swimmers in terms of some great competition.”
News courtesy of Duke Athletics.