Blue Devils Down Davidson In First Meet Of New Year

Saturday, January 14

Davidson, N.C.

1 p.m.

Duke University

140

Davidson

Season-Bests Highlight Day Two Of ACC Championships

Blue Devils Down Davidson In First Meet Of New Year

1/14/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

DAVIDSON, N.C. -- The Duke swimming and diving team won 18 of 26 events to defeat Davidson on the road in dual-meet action Friday. The women recorded their highest margin of victory since a 135-70 rout of the College of Charleston on Oct. 9, 2004, by downing Davidson, 155-79. The men produced a 140-94 victory over the Wildcats for their second-highest margin this year. Duke's women improve their dual meet record to 5-3, while the men stand at an even 3-3.

“We were excited to get back into competition today,” said head coach Dan Colella. “We definitely had some cobwebs that needed to be wiped away from not competing for six or seven weeks, so i think it was a good competition to see some things that people need to work on in preparing for Virginia next week and going into the final stretch of the season.”

Several Blue Devils picked up multiple wins during the meet. Senior Katie Ness collected the 200 freestyle and butterfly titles, while classmate Julia Lewis earned her second win of the year in the 50 freestyle and her first in the 100 freestyle. Freshman Lauren Gonzalez swept the women's diving events, and sophomore Chris Sanders did the same for the men. Sophomore Ryan Packer repeated Lewis' performance, picking up his first wins of the season in the 50 and 100 freestyle.

For the first time this year, the Blue Devils completed sweeps of the top three spots in four events: the women's 200 freestyle, 200 IM, 100 freestyle and 200 backstroke and the men's 200 backstroke. Freshman Emily Kelly led the way in the 200 IM, swimming the event for the first time in college, and trouncing her nearest Davidson competitor by over six seconds and finishing more than three ahead of teammate Katie Bieze, who came in second.

Lewis and fellow seniors Alison Sundberg and Nora Stupp swam a tight 100 freestyle, finishing within 0.27 seconds of each other. The 200 freestyle group was the only one in the meet to claim an event's top four spots with Ness, Stupp, sophomore Danielle Spearman and junior Leslie Hartford claiming the first four positions.

The 200 backstroke was the only event where both the Duke men and women finished one-two-three to claim 16 of the 18 points doled out for the event. Junior Michelle Aristeo, who missed part of the season due to injury, earned her first win in the 200 backstroke with a season-best 2:09.11, followed by freshman Erin Frizzell and Spearman. Senior Billy Pearce won the event for the second time this season, leading sophomore Scott Champagne and junior Alex Sidelnik.

Next up for the Blue Devils is a 6 p.m. home contest against Atlantic Coast Conference foe Virginia Friday at the Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion.

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