Duke Falls to North Carolina in Final Dual Meet

Friday, January 30

Chapel Hill, N.C.

5:00 PM

Duke University

North Carolina

Duke Falls to North Carolina in Final Dual Meet

1/30/2015 9:39:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Blue Devils turned in several season-best times in the pool and received strong contributions from the diving corps, but ultimately fell to a pair of nationally-ranked North Carolina squads Friday evening in the regular season finale at Koury Natatorium.

The fifth-ranked Tar Heel women defeated Duke by a 175-113 score while the 20th-ranked North Carolina men posted a 176-90 victory. The Blue Devil women conclude the regular season at 8-2 (2-2 ACC) and the men's team at 4-6 (0-4 ACC). For the women's program, the eight dual meet victories mark the most since the 2007-08 campaign.

“We came to race tonight,” said head coach Dan Colella. “The score doesn't reflect it by any stretch, but I think they did a nice job of racing. We had some people really stand up. I think we would have liked to seen it a lot closer tonight than it was, but I'm not disappointed with the way they performed. There are some things that came out of tonight that are great signs of what we're going to be doing at ACCs.”

Despite the team losses, Duke rounded out its dual meet slate with a number of standout performances. Freshman Verity Abel kicked off the individual events by displaying great back-half speed in the 1,000-yard freestyle. The Westport, Conn., native took North Carolina's Liliana Casso to the wall in the race before taking second at 10:07.33. Fellow rookie Matt Johnson was also impressive in the same event on the men's side, clocking a season-best mark of 9:30.65 in a third-place finish.

After the Tar Heels swept the top spots in the next couple of swimming events, sophomore Peter Kropp countered with a win in the 100 breaststroke (54.80). Freshman Isabella Paez followed by besting the field in the 200 butterfly at 1:59.47.

The Blue Devil divers provided points as well, with sophomore Kirby Quinn placing third in the 3-meter competition (297.82) and freshman MaryEllen Targonski taking third on the 1-meter board (285.22). Both divers' scores surpassed the NCAA Zones qualifying standards for the respective event.

“To come in third, I felt really good because I've been working a lot on my consistency,” Quinn said. “I've been pretty consistent on 3-meter in the past two meets, and hopefully that can lead me into ACCs.”

Other highlights on the evening included second-place showings by Johnson in the 500 freestyle (4:37.25) and sophomore Maddie Rusch in the 100 butterfly (54.99). Freshman Leah Goldman and sophomore Michael Miller were both second to the wall in the 200 IM, while Goldman also took third in the 100 freestyle.

The Duke women finished second to the Tar Heels in both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.

“The Tar Heels were tough,” Colella said. “They raced incredibly well tonight. Hats off to them. For us, we had a number of people who went season-best times. It was nice to see those performances. There have been some years where I don't feel like we've stood up and raced when we've come here; tonight we did.”

Select Blue Devil swimmers will return to North Carolina's Koury Natatorium next weekend to compete in the Carolina College Invitational Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 7-8.

Team Scores:
UNC Women 175, Duke Women 113
UNC Men 176, Duke Men 90

Top Duke Finishers by Event:
Women's 200-Yard Medley Relay: Jessie Sutherland, Ashleigh Shanley, Leah Goldman, Maddie Rusch (2nd), 1:42.88
Men's 200-Yard Medley Relay: Tyler Toren, Victor Chen, Kenny Ng, Nick Bigot (5th), 1:34.19