Press Release courtesy of Duke Athletics
After rounding out the dual meet portion of the season with a pair of victories, the Blue Devil men and women will feature a number of swimmers in action at this weekend’s Janis Hape Dowd Carolina College Nike Invitational. North Carolina and Duke will share hosting duties, with events to take place at the Tar Heels’ Maurice J. Koury Natatorium Friday and Sunday and at the Blue Devils’ Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion Saturday.
Preliminaries are set to begin at 10 a.m. each day, followed by finals at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 5 p.m. on Sunday. Live results will be available here.
Friday’s events in Chapel Hill include the 200-yard freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 400 medley relay. Saturday’s action in Taishoff will include the 200 medley relay, 100 butterfly, 400 individual medley, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and the 800 freestyle relay, while Sunday’s events feature the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 400 freestyle relay and the 1,650 freestyle.
Teams participating in the Janis Hape Dowd Carolina College Nike Invitational include Duke, Johns Hopkins, NC State, North Carolina, William & Mary and William Peace University.
Last Time Out
Duke sent out its 11 seniors in style last Saturday in Taishoff, as the women and men both topped the Tar Heels in the regular season finale. The Blue Devil women took down No. 20 North Carolina by a 151-149 margin after a back-and-forth battle and the Duke men emerged with a 157.5-142.5 victory.
Senior Verity Abel (500 and 1,650 freestyle) and juniors Maddie Hess (100 and 200 backstroke) and Yusuke Legard (50 and 100 freestyle) were all double individual event winners for the Blue Devils. Duke also claimed three of the four relay events on the day and saw sophomore Nathaniel Hernandez and freshman Teddy Zeng win the men’s one-meter and three-meter diving competitions, respectively.
To see highlights from the Blue Devils’ Senior Day ceremony, click here.
Blue Devil Women Back in National Rankings
After being listed as high as No. 20 in the College Swimming Coaches Association of America/TYR Top 25 Swimming and Diving Poll earlier this season, the Duke women re-entered the national rankings this week. The Blue Devils came in at No. 25 in Wednesday’s edition of the poll and will face competitors from other ranked teams this weekend in No. 10 NC State and No. 18 North Carolina.
The men’s field at the Janis Hape Dowd Carolina College Nike Invitational features one ranked squad in No. 5 NC State.
Hess Tabbed Duke Student-Athlete of the Week
Hess was named the Duke Student-Athlete of the Week Wednesday after helped to lead the Duke women to the thrilling dual meet victory over the Tar Heels. A backstroke and freestyle specialist from Brandon, Fla., Hess swept the women’s backstroke events and competed on both of Duke’s top relays. She surpassed the NCAA provisional time standards in claiming the 100-yard (54.07) and 200 (1:58.68) backstroke and led off the winning 200 medley relay (1:40.68) to open the meet on a high note. Hess also led off the Blue Devils’ 400 freestyle relay (3:24.01), which secured the dual meet win over the Tar Heels with a second-place finish.
Swimmers and Divers Earn National Academic Honors
The Duke men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs were named Scholar All-America teams for the 2017 fall semester, as announced Monday by the CSCAA. To earn the academic honor, teams were required to post a grade point average of 3.0 or higher for the fall semester.
The Blue Devil women tallied a collective grade point average of 3.47 to rank fourth among the 12 ACC teams that received Scholar All-America recognition. The men were second out of nine ACC squads to earn the accolade with a combined grade point average of 3.27 for the fall.
Duke was one of nine ACC institutions to have both the women’s and men’s teams garner the academic honor.
Results Link is not working