Duke Women Close Nike Cup Invite in 4th, Men 7th

Saturday, November 22

Chapel Hill, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day Three at Nike Cup Invitational

Duke Women Close Nike Cup Invite in 4th, Men 7th

11/22/2014 9:11:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The Blue Devil women placed five swimmers in championship finals and featured a strong contingent in the 10-meter platform diving competition to conclude the 2014 Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup Invitational in fourth place Saturday, Nov. 22. The squad totaled 1,206.5 points over the three days of action at North Carolina's Koury Natatorium, while the Duke men accounted for 708 points to finish seventh in the program's final event of the fall season.

“This weekend a lot of people saw what came of all their hard work this fall,” said head coach Dan Colella. “One of the big things we've focused on is staying composed in a high-pressure situation, and I think they did a really great job of that ... There's definitely things to work on, things to develop. But that's why we're here – to learn and be able to compete in an environment with a lot of great teams and get that feel of conference and NCAAs. We couldn't be any prouder of what they accomplished over the course of the weekend. There's some great stuff to build on.”

Freshman Isabella Paez gave the Blue Devils their second individual event winner in as many days, closing with speed to best the field in the 200-yard butterfly championship final with a mark of 1:57.58. That clocking broke the previous program record, which Paez set in the morning preliminaries at 1:58.60, and surpassed the NCAA provisional time standard in the event. Sophomore Colleen Wixted joined Paez in the 'A' final, racing to a fourth-place finish in a career-best 1:59.82 to rank third on Duke's all-time top-10 chart.

“Isa is really a back-half swimmer,” Colella said. “Going back to staying composed, it takes a mature athlete to swim that way. She was in fifth or sixth place at the 100 and then just slowly reeled it in on the next 50 and crushed it on the last 50. It was huge for her and her confidence.”

The women also picked up numerous points in the 10-meter platform diving event, as all four Blue Devils placed within the top-eight. Junior Jaimee Gundry led the way in second with an award of 253.15 while freshman MaryEllen Targonski was third (249.00), junior Kendall McClenney fifth (238.50) and sophomore Kirby Quinn eighth (206.00).

“That was huge,” Colella said. “Their results solidified the fourth-place finish, moved us closer to almost there in third place. For Jaimee to lead the way and finish second was definitely a big boost.”

Sophomore Maddie Rusch headlined the sprint group with a fourth-place performance in the 100 freestyle. Rusch touched at 50.38 for a season-best time and freshman Leah Goldman went 50.24 in the 'B' final for the third-fastest mark in program history and a ninth-place finish overall. Fellow rookie Verity Abel earned a seventh-place showing in the 1,650 freestyle at 16:44.43, a time that ranked her fifth all-time at Duke. Alex Peña was the top finisher in the men's mile, leading a quartet of freshmen in the event with a 15:49.48 swim to rank sixth on the program's all-time list.

The men's 200 butterfly 'A' final saw sophomore Kaz Takabayashi come in seventh at 1:48.69. Takabayashi also posted a career-best time of 1:48.39 in Saturday morning's preliminaries for the fifth-best mark in school history. The Blue Devils also advanced a pair of swimmers to the 200 backstroke championship finals, with sophomore Bradley Cline finishing sixth for the men (1:48.09) and classmate Liza Bragg also taking sixth in 1:58.80 for an NCAA 'B' cut.

A day after solidifying a trip to the 2015 NCAA Championship, sophomore Peter Kropp was also in top form Saturday, recording a season best 1:56.73 in the 200 breaststroke preliminaries. That performance moved him up to second on Duke's all-time top-10 and surpassed the NCAA provisional standard in the event. Kropp went even faster in the evening's championship final but had his swim disqualified.

In the final event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, Rusch, junior Chelsea Ye, junior Kathryn Eckhart and Goldman placed fourth (3:21.72) and Cline, junior David Armstrong, Takabayashi and senior Stefan Knight combined for a sixth-place showing (3:01.54).

Over the course of the three days in Chapel Hill, the Blue Devils broke one ACC record, one meet record, one facility record and three program benchmarks.

The Tennessee women came out on top in the final team standings with 2,059 points, followed by host North Carolina (1,685), NC State (1,396.5) and Duke (1,206.5). The Wolfpack men (1,521) edged the Tar Heels (1,490) while the Blue Devils placed seventh of nine teams.

The Duke men and women resume competition in 2015, hosting South Carolina and Harvard Saturday, Jan. 10 at Taishoff Aquatics Pavilion.

Team Scores
Duke Women: 4th/9 (1,206.5)
Duke Men: 7th/9 (708)

Top Duke Finishers by Event
Women's 1,650-Yard Freestyle: Verity Abel (7th), 16:44.43
Men's 1,650-Yard Freestyle: Alex Peña (14th), 15:49.48

Women's 200-Yard Backstroke: Liza Bragg (6th), 1:58.80
Men's 200-Yard Backstroke: Bradley Cline (6th), 1:48.09

Women's 100-Yard Freestyle: Maddie Rusch (4th), 50.38
Men's 100-Yard Freestyle: Stefan Knight (24th), 46.89

Women's 200-Yard Breaststroke: Ashleigh Shanley (12th), 2:19.29
Men's 200-Yard Breaststroke: Victor Chen (14th), 2:02.49