Duke Falls To Ranked Virginia In ACC Dual Meet

Friday, January 20

Durham, N.C.

6 p.m.

Duke University

126

Virginia

Men's Swimming To Begin ACC Championship Action Wednesday

Duke Falls To Ranked Virginia In ACC Dual Meet

1/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. -- The Duke swimming and diving team faced its second Top 20 opponent this year Friday at Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion, with the Blue Devil women falling by just 10 points to No. 20 Virginia, 125-115. The No. 13 male Cavaliers defeated the Duke men, 126-93.

“We are excited about the way we performed tonight,” said head coach Dan Colella. “We came off a win last weekend, where even though we won, we were definitely a little flat in terms of performance. We have really been focusing on race preparation, not just physically, but mentally being able to stand up and race, and we did that today.”

Both men and women took off from the opening event, the 200 medley relay. After the top Virginia relay team was disqualified, the Duke women were able to take first and third in the event with times of 1:47.61 and 1:52.84, respectively. The thrilling men's 200 medley relay saw sophomore anchor Ryan Packer come from behind in a heated race to touch out a Virginia competitor by 0.01 seconds to take second in a season-best time of 1:36.34.

In the following event, junior Jackie Rodriguez kept the score close by winning the 1650 freestyle in 17:06.92, her best time of the season. A few lanes over, senior Andy Storm swam the second best 1000 freestyle of his career, finishing in 9:55.27. Rodriguez also notched a win in the 100 breaststroke for the first time this season, swimming a 1:05.93.

For the sixth time this season, senior Katie Ness, picked up a pair of wins for the Blue Devils, winning the 200 IM and 100 butterfly. She recorded her best dual-meet time of the season in the IM, touching in 2:05.31. At the Patriot Invitational in November, Ness earned a season-best 2:04.40, just 0.11 seconds off the NCAA ?B' cut mark.

Sophomore Scott Champagne came away with his first event win of the season by registering his second-best career time in the 500 freestyle, a 4:51.71. Champagne also added points for Duke in the 200 IM, where he swam a 1:56.49 to take second.

Three freshmen swam their best times Friday with Nick Schilling completing the 100 butterfly in 54.45, Erin Frizzell the 100 backstroke in 59.62 and Amanda Rowland the 100 breaststroke in 1:11.63. Sophomores Sara Reynolds, Amy Brown and Dana Rosenberg followed suit, with Reynolds earning a 1:04.83 in the 100 backstroke, Brown a 1:08.2 in the 100 breaststroke and Rosenberg a 1:00.08 in the 100 butterfly. Even the junior class saw career best performances by Leslie Hartford in the 200 freestyle (1:57.54) and Michelle Aristeo in the 200 IM (2:12.83). Sophomore Matt Rinehart tied his best 50 freestyle performance by recording a 22.39 relay leadoff.

The Blue Devils will next travel to East Carolina for its second-to-last dual meet. Last year's showdown with the Pirates came down to the wire, with the ECU men defeating the Blue Devils by five points and the ECU women winning by three. The meet begins at 1 p.m. in Greenville, N.C.

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