School Records Highlight Opening Night at ACCs

Wednesday, February 17

Greensboro, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at Women's ACC Championship

School Records Highlight Opening Night at ACCs

2/17/2016 6:22:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Live Results Watch Thursday's Finals on ESPN3 Results

By: Duke Sports Information

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Blue Devil women kicked off the 2016 ACC Championships with a pair of program records Wednesday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Duke competed in one diving event and two relays to open the conference championship in seventh place.

Sophomore Verity Abel, freshman Maddie Hess, freshman Hunter Aitchison and junior Brittany Friese took down the school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay established at last year's ACC meet. The group combined for a 7:13.26 clocking to shave over four seconds off the previous benchmark and finish ninth in the field. Abel's leadoff time of 1:47.90 also reset the Blue Devils' record in the 200 freestyle.

“The 800 free relay knocked off four, four and a half seconds off the school record, so we were very excited about that,” said head coach Dan Colella. “Verity Abel really got us going with a school record leading off with that 200 freestyle. There were a few swims tonight that we would have liked to see been a little bit better, but all in all, I think it was a really solid evening, something that we're definitely going to build on.”

In the women's 200 medley relay, the quartet of freshman Mickayla Hinkle, junior Ashleigh Shanley, sophomore Leah Goldman and junior Maddie Rusch improved upon their season-best time with a 1:38.10 performance. That mark placed them sixth in the field and second on Duke's all-time performance list.

Duke's divers opened the meet by competing in the women's 1-meter springboard preliminaries. Freshman Mackenzie Willborn headlined the group with a 13th-place finish, totaling 279.70 points. Her highest-scoring dive of the day came in the second round, when she earned 54.60 points on a forward 2 ½ somersault for a 2.6 degree of difficulty.

Sophomore MaryEllen Targonski also earned a top-20 finish in 15th (275.55) while senior Kendall McClenney was 21st (260.45) and junior Kirby Quinn 30th (245.25).

On the men's side, freshman Evan Moretti secured a spot in the 3-meter springboard finals after placing fifth in the event preliminaries. His score of 360.60 during the afternoon was just off his season-best.

In the championship final, Moretti got out to a strong start, scoring over 65 points on each of his first three dives. He opened the round with a forward 3 ½ somersault for a 3.1 degree of difficult that earned an award of 71.30 from the judges. The rookie from Scarsdale, N.Y., closed out his ACC Championship debut in fifth with a score of 354.15.

“I totally surprised myself,” Moretti said of his performances. “I just want to score points for the team as much as I can. The Duke team this year is so strong and such a great group of people that you want to score points for. It's great to make an impact, knowing that the men's team is going in with those points.”

A full day of swimming and diving is on tap for Thursday, with preliminaries slated for 10 a.m., men's 1-meter diving preliminaries at 12 p.m. and finals at 6 p.m. Events for the second day in Greensboro include the 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 freestyle, men's 1-meter diving and the 200 freestyle relay. The 6 p.m. finals session will be broadcast on ESPN3.

Team Scores:

Women: 1) Miami 155, 2) North Carolina 154, 3) Louisville 146.5, 4) NC State 142, 5) Virginia 140, 6) Notre Dame 138, 7) Duke 118, 8) Virginia Tech 101, 9) Pittsburgh 99, 10) Florida State 95, 11) Georgia Tech 89.5, 12) Boston College 60, 13) Clemson 28

Top Duke Finishers by Event:

Women's 200-Yard Medley Relay: Mickayla Hinkle, Ashleigh Shanley, Leah Goldman, Maddie Rusch (6th), 1:38.10

Women's 1-Meter Diving: Mackenzie Willborn (13th), 279.70

Women's 800-Yard Freestyle Relay: Verity Abel, Maddie Hess, Hunter Aitchison, Brittany Friese (9th), 7:13.26

Men's 3-Meter Diving: Evan Moretti, 5th (354.15)

#GoDuke