Upcoming Event: Swimming & Diving versus North Carolina on October 17, 2025 at 4 p.m. Diving / 5 p.m. Swimming
/
4 p.m. Diving / 5 p.m. Swimming
Swimming & Diving
vs North Carolina
Saturday, February 18
College Park, Md.
All Day
Duke University
at
Day Four
Ness Posts Fourth ?B? Time As Duke Finishes ACC Competition
2/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- The Duke women's swimming and diving team closed out its season Saturday, with sophomore Danielle Spearman, senior Julia Lewis, sophomore Anna Rogers and senior Katie Ness swimming a season-best 3:28.53 in the 400 freestyle relay to end the Blue Devils' run at the 2006 ACC Championships at the University of Maryland. The four-day meet was highlighted by three school records -- two relays and one individual -- and four NCAA “B” standard times posted by senior standout Ness.
Ness turned in one of the best 200 butterfly times of her career -- an NCAA provisional 2:00.39 -- to finish third in the championship final and claim her first All-ACC honor of the year Saturday. The award goes to the top three finishers in each event, and Ness notched fourth-place times in both the 100 butterfly and 200 IM. Ness came within .01 seconds of second place in Saturday's 200 butterfly final and .25 seconds of her career best.
Junior Jackie Rodriguez pulled triple duty Saturday, swimming the 200 breaststroke preliminaries and consolation finals with the mile freestyle in between. Rodriguez led a trio of milers for the Blue Devils, finishing 15th in 17:08.23, followed by sophomore Alexa Namba in 17:30.68 ad freshman Kristin Cobb in a career-best 17:45.19. Just a few hours later, Rodriguez was back in the water to wrap up her performances in the 200 breaststroke consolation heat, where she swam her second-best time of the season (2:20.62) -- the best came in the afternoon's preliminary session, which she completed in 2:19.20.
Freshman Erin Frizzell and Spearman both swam their best 200 backstroke races of the season, coming in third and fifth, respectively in the bonus finals. Frizzell knocked nearly a second off the personal best she set in the preliminaries, finishing in 2:05.09, and Spearman recorded her best time since the November Patriot Invitational with a 2:06.
Freshman Emily Kelly took over two seconds off her preliminary 200 butterfly time of 2:10.88 by notching a 2:07.06 in the bonus finals, finishing second in that heat. Kelly was just off her personal best time of 2:06.6.
The Duke record books have three new etchings after this year's ACC Championships, thanks to Spearman, senior Nora Stupp, Ness and Lewis in the 200 medley relay, Rogers, Spearman, Stupp and Lewis in the 200 freestyle relay and Ness in the 100 backstroke. The Blue Devils finished 10th at the ACC meet with 160 points.
Ness now has four provisional qualifying times -- 55.33 100 backstroke, 55.32 100 butterfly, 2:02.71 200 IM and 2:00.39 200 butterfly. The NCAA will announce its selections in the next two weeks for the national championships, held March 16-18, at the University of Georgia.
-d-u-k-e-
Players Mentioned
Free/Fly
/ Swimming & DivingBackstroke
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Fly/IM
/ Swimming & DivingBack/Free
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Breast
/ Swimming & DivingFly/IM
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Breast
/ Swimming & DivingBack/Free
/ Swimming & DivingBack/Free
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Breast/IM
/ Swimming & DivingDuke Athletics: A Tour of Campus
Saturday, October 19
A Century of Blue Devil Brilliance
Saturday, October 19
Senior Social Kick: Kevin Explains Cubed Food Theory
Friday, March 10
Senior Social Kick: Brad Solves a Rubik's Cube
Friday, March 10
