Blue Devil Women Primed for ACC Championship

Duke Announces 2015-16 Swimming & Diving Schedule

Blue Devil Women Primed for ACC Championship

2/17/2015 1:16:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

2015 ACC WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIP

Dates	Host School	Location	Facility	Links
Feb. 18-21	Georgia Tech	Atlanta, Ga.	Aquatic Center	ESPN3 \| Live Results \| Twitter

DURHAM, N.C. – After collecting the program's most dual wins since the 2007-08 campaign, the Blue Devil women are set to kick off action at the 2015 ACC Women's Swimming and Diving Championship, which gets underway Wednesday, Feb. 18 at Georgia Tech's Aquatic Center in Atlanta.

The four-day championship meet features preliminaries at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, Feb. 21. Men's and women's diving preliminaries will take place during the afternoon Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. In addition, finals sessions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be broadcast live on ESPN3. For more championship information and a complete schedule of events, visit http://theacc.co/SDchamps.

Last Time Out
Duke swimmers competed at the inaugural Carolina College Invitational Feb. 7 and 8 at North Carolina's Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill, N.C. … A number of Blue Devils swam their way into the program's all-time top-10 performance list at the meet … Sophomores Lindsay Schlichte and Mike Seaberg were named the ACC Female and Male Swimmers of the Week for their performances in Chapel Hill.

Blue Devils to Make Second Trip to Atlanta
Duke's swimmers and divers were able to preview the Yellow Jackets' facility, which played host to the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, earlier this year in a dual meet at Georgia Tech … The women's team posted first-place finishes in 12 of 16 events to top the Yellow Jackets, while the men dropped a decision to Georgia Tech … The opportunity to compete at the facility ahead of this week's meet will benefit the team in the water and on the boards, said sophomore Jessie Sutherland … “I think having a dual meet just a few weeks ago was awesome – we could check out the pool,” she said. “The pads are a little bit different for backstroke. That was really key for me to test that out.”

Scouting the Competition
The ACC currently features four teams ranked in the top 25 of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Division I women's team rankings … Virginia, winner of the past seven conference crowns, leads the way at No. 8, followed by No. 9 North Carolina, No. 13 NC State and No. 20 Louisville … Louisville and North Carolina have been ranked among the nation's top 25 for the entire season … The Tar Heel women finished atop the regular season conference standings with an undefeated mark against ACC competition (5-0) … The Duke women compiled a 2-2 ledger against conference opponents and went 8-2 overall during the dual meet season … Louisville heads to Atlanta for its debut at the ACC Championship.

ACC Championship Rewind: Recapping Last Year's Meet
The Blue Devil women placed seventh out of 12 teams with a total of 592 points at the 2014 ACC Championship in Greensboro, N.C. … The team combined to break 13 program records over the course of the meet, including eight in individual events and five in relay events … 2014 graduate Lauren Weaver earned a pair of podium finishes by taking home the bronze in the 50 freestyle and the 100 butterfly … The women made history on the first night of the meet by qualifying a relay to the NCAA Championships, as Sutherland, Christine Wixted, Maddie Rusch and Weaver surpassed the NCAA automatic standard in the 200 medley relay.

Blue Devils in the Conference Landscape
Freshman Isabella Paez ranks seventh in the ACC and 36th nationally in the 200 butterfly (1:57.58) entering this week's conference championship … Rusch is eighth in the 50 freestyle (22.72), while junior diver Jaimee Gundry currently ranks 10th on the platform (253.15) … Freshman Leah Goldman, Sutherland, junior Chelsea Ye and Rusch are fifth on the conference performance list and 26th nationally in the 200 freestyle relay with a season-best time of 1:31.02.

Divers Set for Strong Showing
All four divers will look to score for Duke this week in Atlanta … Last year's ACC Championship saw Gundry advance to the women's platform final for the second consecutive season … She placed sixth overall with a personal-best score of 285.80 ... That award also ranked second all-time at Duke … Classmate Kendall McClenney was ninth in the platform preliminaries last year at ACCs, while Kirby Quinn was 19th with a season-best score of 224.90 … Gundry has led the diving corps this season on the platform with an award of 253.15 at the Nike Cup Invitational, while Quinn owns the team's best mark this season on the 3-meter board (310.05) … Freshman MaryEllen Targonski has also come on strong, leading the way for the Blue Devils on the 1-meter with an award of 293.24 against Old Dominion and St. Andrew's University.

Colella's Take
“Everybody is extremely excited about the way they've performed all season long,” said head coach Dan Colella. “We're excited to compete at the ACC Championships, and I think we have the potential to score a lot more points than we did last year. Ultimately, the best way to perform is to stayed focused on your performance and not worry about other people. I think we're ready for some great stuff this week. Hopefully when it's all said and done, we'll have a nice group that will be heading to Greensboro for NCAAs.”

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