DURHAM, N.C. – A week after wrapping up the regular season in Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion, the Duke men and women begin postseason competition with this weekend’s Carolina College Invitational. The three-day meet begins Friday at North Carolina’s Koury Natatorium.
Last Time Out
The Blue Devils opened last Saturday’s dual meet against North Carolina in thrilling fashion, out-touching the Tar Heels in both 200-yard medley relays … Duke also received an early lift in diving and saw sophomores Verity Abel and Matt Johnson keep the momentum going with first-places finishes in the 1,000 freestyle … The men kept things close with North Carolina wire-to-wire, falling by a 156-142 margin … The 14-point spread was the narrowest between the teams since the Tar Heels won by a 63-50 score in 1978 … The Blue Devil women wrapped up the regular season with a 7-3 dual meet ledger (3-1 ACC) and the men with a record of 6-4 (2-2 ACC).
In the National Rankings
The Duke men re-entered the national rankings Thursday, coming in at No. 22 in the latest Division I poll conducted by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) … The Blue Devils have been ranked as high as No. 18 during the course of the season … The women’s squad has also been ranked for the first time in program history this year.
Carolina College Invitational Schedule
The Carolina College Invitational is an unscored meet that will feature three rounds of preliminary and finals sessions over three days in Chapel Hill … Swimmers from Duke and North Carolina will be joined at the meet by student-athletes from James Madison, NC State, Old Dominion, UNC Wilmington and William & Mary … For a list of events, see the schedule below.
Friday, Feb. 5 (Preliminaries 10 a.m., Finals 6 p.m.)
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
400 Medley Relay
Saturday, Feb. 6 (Preliminaries 10 a.m., Finals 6 p.m.)
200 Medley Relay
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
800 Freestyle Relay
Sunday, Feb. 7 (Preliminaries 10 a.m., Finals 5 p.m.)
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
400 Freestyle Relay
1,650 Freestyle
Colella’s Take
“For those that this is the end of the season, especially the seniors, I hope and I’m pretty confident that they have been thrilled with what’s transpired over the course of the season,” said head coach Dan Colella. “They’re excited to swim really fast this weekend and, at the same time, be there and support the team through ACCs and NCAAs. This senior group in particular has been very instrumental in creating what we saw this year. We’re thankful they’ve been a part of this and are looking forward to some fast swimming this weekend.”
Swimming news courtesy of Duke Swimming & Diving.