After nearly two months without a meet, the Duke men's and women's swimming and diving teams were able to record easy victories against Davidson Saturday.
Despite having no official competition since the Patriot Invitational Nov. 20, the Blue Devils showed no signs of any rust in the pool Saturday. The women's team (5-3) beat the Wildcats 155-79, its highest margin of victory since a 135-70 drubbing of the College of Charleston back in October 2004. The men's squad (3-3) captured a 140-94 victory over Davidson, its second-highest margin this year.
"This was probably a good meet to have to get our team ready for the second half of the season," head coach Dan Colella said. "We were able to work the kinks out on Saturday."
Several of Duke's swimmers won multiple events against the Wildcats. Senior Katie Ness won both the 200-meter freestyle and butterfly. Freshman Lauren Gonzalez and sophomore Chris Sanders each won every diving event for the women and men, respectively.
In addition to having numerous swimmers and divers winning multiple events, the Blue Devils also won the top three spots in five events. The women swept the 200 freestyle, 200 IM, 100 freestyle and 200 backstroke, while the men secured the top three spots in the 200 backstroke.
"It was a huge thrill to go one-two-three in those events," said Colella. "It really added to the roar on the sidelines. Those wins gave our program a lot of confidence."
Duke has three very tough meets coming up as they compete against Virginia, East Carolina and then Clemson over the next three weekends.
"We're going to have our hands full over the next three weeks, especially against Virginia," said Colella. "We really want to go out there and give them some good competition."
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