Winning their final home meets was even sweeter for the Blue Devils Saturday when they took down East Carolina, which defeated both Duke teams last season.
The men's and women's swimming and diving teams finished their home seasons with a pair of close wins against the Pirates at the Taishoff Aquatic Center. The women's squad (5-3) topped ECU (9-4) 161-137 while the men's team (4-4) beat the Pirates (7-5) in a narrow 155-145 win.
"We had some real solid performances, and it was definitely a major team effort," head coach Dan Colella said. "We knew every race would count-that was something we had talked about for the days leading up to the meet."
The women's team opened the meet by taking the 400-yard medley relay with solid legs from junior Danielle Spearman, senior Jackie Rodriguez and freshmen Shannon Beall and Caitlin Ariens for a 3:52.86 time.
Spearman, Rodriguez and Beall were also double-event winners in individual races. On the boards, freshman Julie Brummond earned first-place scores for both the one and three-meter dives.
The men's squad also won its opening race when senior Kevin Arthofer, and freshmen David Hahn, Eric Ness and David Carlson earned a season-best time of 3:27.04 in the 400-yard medley relay. Carlson posted two other first-place finishes with season-best times, taking both the 100-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle. Arthofer also took first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 57.80 time.
"Since the holidays, he really has just come into his own, and he's really ahead of where he was last season," Colella said of Arthofer. "He's really setting himself up for a good year."
After closing out its dual meet schedule at Clemson Feb. 3, Duke will compete in the ACC Championships Feb. 14-17 for the women and Feb. 21-24 for the men.
- Lauren Kobylarz
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