Duke Women Open Action at NCAA Championships

Thursday, March 17

Atlanta, Ga.

All Day

Duke University

Day Two at Women's NCAA Championship

Duke Women Open Action at NCAA Championships

3/17/2016 8:10:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

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By: Duke Sports Information

ATLANTA – Blue Devil swimmers kicked off action at the NCAA Women's Swimming and Diving Championships Thursday, competing in the preliminaries of four events at Georgia Tech's McAuley Aquatic Center.

Duke's 200-yard freestyle relay of freshman Maddie Hess, junior Maddie Rusch, junior Jessie Sutherland and sophomore Leah Goldman opened the morning with a 1:30.05 clocking. That placed the quartet 21st in the field.

Freshman Verity Abel represented the Blue Devils in the first individual event of the meet, turning in a time of 4:49.73 in the 500 freestyle preliminaries to come in 64th place. Goldman returned to the water for the 200 IM preliminaries, touching at 1:59.48 to finish 44th. Rusch then rounded out the morning's events in the 50 freestyle preliminaries, coming in 37th at 22.58.

The NCAA Championships continue Friday with preliminaries at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m. in Atlanta. The Blue Devils have three swimmers entered in the 100 butterfly – Goldman, Rusch and sophomore Isabella Paez, while Abel is slated to compete in the 200 freestyle.

Top Duke Finishers by Event:

200-Yard Freestyle Relay: Maddie Hess, Maddie Rusch, Jessie Sutherland, Leah Goldman (21st), 1:30.05

500-Yard Freestyle: Verity Abel (64th), 4:49.73

200-Yard Individual Medley: Leah Goldman (44th), 1:59.48

50-Yard Freestyle: Maddie Rusch (37th), 22.58

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