Strong Day Moves Duke Into Seventh at ACCs

Friday, February 26

Greensboro, N.C.

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Duke University

Day Three at Men's ACC Championship

Strong Day Moves Duke Into Seventh at ACCs

2/26/2016 9:31:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Live Results Watch Saturday's Finals on ESPN3 Results

By: Duke Sports Information

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Blue Devil men placed five swimmers in the 100-yard breaststroke finals and featured another in the 100 backstroke championship final Friday at the 2016 ACC Championship. With an impressive 12 individual swims in the evening finals, Duke jumped two spots in the team standings to seventh heading into the final day of competition.

“We had 12 swims tonight, and that's probably more swims than we've ever had back in an evening session,” said head coach Dan Colella. “So really, really proud of the way they performed. The racing tonight, I think we always want more, but they gave it everything they had. We had a lot of good ones there and we had a lot of people move up.”

Juniors Peter Kropp and Mike Seaberg headlined the Blue Devils' five finalists in the 100 breaststroke, touching seventh and eighth, respectively, in the championship final. Seaberg posted two best times on the day, with his finals mark of 53.50 ranking him fifth on the program's all-time chart. Fellow junior Dylan Payne won the consolation final in 53.34, the fourth-fastest time in Duke history, while freshman Judd Howard took fourth in the heat at 54.19. Howard also posted a best time in the preliminaries, as his 53.85 clocking ranked sixth on the Blue Devils' all-time performance list. Senior Victor Chen rounded out the Duke contingent in the 100 breaststroke, scoring in 20th place (55.07).

“When you think about it, those five guys scored as many points as we did last night, maybe more,” Colella said. “It was huge for us to have that representation in the finals in a single event. I don't think we've ever had anything like that in previous years. Hopefully that will be the trend of the future.”

Junior Kaz Takabayashi secured a spot in the 100 backstroke championship final, where he finished eighth. Freshman Max St. George moved up three places from his morning swim to win the consolation final at 47.41. Earlier in the day, St. George reset the program record in the event with a 47.43 preliminaries performance before Takabayashi reclaimed the record at 47.23.

“Having Kaz as a training partner is really good,” St. George said. “He helps me out helps my racing a lot. It's really nice to have someone to race with that's that fast.”

Takabayashi also advanced to finals in the 100 butterfly, tapping the wall fourth in the bonus final. His mark of 48.11 was good for the fourth-fastest in program history. Senior David Armstrong also represented the Blue Devils in the 100 butterfly, finishing 15th overall (47.87).

In the 400 IM, junior Michael Miller came in 15th (3:51.33) and sophomore Matt Johnson 21st (3:54.33), with Johnson's preliminaries clocking of 3:54.12 placing him third on Duke's all-time performance list. Freshman Sean Tate added points in the 200 freestyle, earning fourth in the consolation final and surpassing the NCAA 'B' standard with a 1:37.83 showing.

Takabayashi, Payne, Armstrong and junior James Peek took to the water in the final event of the evening, the 400 medley relay. The group combined for a time of 3:12.45 to place eighth in the field.

The final day of action in Greensboro will include the 1,650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly and the 400 freestyle relay. Preliminaries get underway at 10 a.m., while finals begin at 6 p.m. on ESPN3.

Team Scores:

1) NC State 928, 2) Louisville 792.5, 3) Virginia Tech 688, 4) North Carolina 659.5, 5) Georgia Tech 518, 6) Virginia 515, 7) Duke 472, 8) Florida State 443, 9) Notre Dame 441, 10) Pitt 289, 11) Boston College 160, 12) Miami 92

Top Duke Finishers by Event:

Men's 400-Yard Individual Medley: Michael Miller (15th), 3:51.33

Men's 100-Yard Butterfly: David Armstrong (15th), 47.87

Men's 200-Yard Freestyle: Sean Tate (20th), 1:37.83

Men's 100-Yard Breaststroke: Peter Kropp (7th), 53.47

Men's 100-Yard Backstroke: Kaz Takabayashi (8th), 47.37

Men's 400-Yard Medley Relay: Kaz Takabayashi, Dylan Payne, David Armstrong, James Peek (8th) 3:12.45

#GoDuke