Cole Reznick has led the Duke men all season long. And this past weekend, all his hard work put his name in the Blue Devil record books.
The Duke men's swimming and diving team competed in the ACC Championships over the weekend in Greensboro, N.C., highlighted by Reznick's school record in the 200-yard IM. As a team, the Blue Devils scored 341 points to place 10th, their same finish as last year. Louisville took home the conference title with 1181 points, followed by N.C. State with 1179 and Virginia Tech with 1085 points, respectively.
Reznick's record time of 1:44.61 was good for 10th in the event, marking the highest finish by a Blue Devil in any event throughout the four-day meet. It also ranked in the top 30 in the NCAA as of Monday.
Head coach Dan Colella had nothing but praise for the junior following the meet.
"He's one that has always been the one to set the example," Colella said. "He's one of the harder [workout swimmers] every day, and I think it's always great to have an athlete like that, who works that hard, to come through, for everyone to kind of see what it takes to swim at that level."
Reznick also placed 19th in the 100-yard breaststroke and 24th in the 200-yard breaststroke to wrap up an impressive weekend. But he wasn't Duke's only noteworthy performer.
Colella also highlighted sophomore Charlie Gingrich, who made the C-Finals and placed 20th in the 100-yard butterfly in addition to 26th and 28th-place finishes in the 50 and 100-yard freestyles, respectively.
"Charlie Gingrich had a really outstanding meet," Colella said. "Charlie's a sophomore, and, like Cole, is an incredible hard worker, who came away from the meet with really all lifetime bests. For him to make it back in the finals in that 100 fly—the 50 free he was just outside, the 100 free was just outside of making it back at night [in the] finals. But he's really done a phenomenal job over the course of these two years."
Outside of Reznick and Gingrich, junior Matthew Whelan placed 12th in 200-yard butterfly, sophomore Brendan Driscoll placed 19th in the 1650-yard freestyle, junior David Hallaron placed 19th in the 200-yard freestyle and junior Everett Werner placed 17th in the 400-yard IM.
The men's divers competed in the ACC Championships along with the women's swimmers and divers Feb. 17-20, with freshman Seamus Harding Jr. leading the way with a sixth-place finish in the platform event.
"For Seamus, I think the last day platform was really significant. To have a freshman make the the top eight, I think was huge," Colella said. "I know he's incredibly proud and excited to contribute like that to the program."
Next, several men's and women's divers will compete this upcoming Sunday through next Tuesday in the NCAA Zone Championships, the divers' qualifying competition for the NCAA Championships. Meanwhile, the men's swimmers will compete in the UNC Last Chance Meet this Sunday. The women's NCAA Championships is set for March 17-20 while the men's meet is scheduled for March 24-27, both also taking place in Greensboro.
It remains to be seen which swimmers and divers will represent Duke at the NCAA Championships. For many, ACCs this past week was the final big meet of the season, and with such a young group, Colella emphasized continued growth into next season and beyond.
"When the competition was over with, and we had a team meeting, we talked about the future of the program," Colella said. "Like anything, it's not something that you can kind of train for six months, and then take six months off. It's a year-round commitment. And I know they indicated that they're really excited about getting back into their training this spring and summer in preparation for next year."
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