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Duke's Winter Sports: Representation In NCAA Championships
3/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
March 17, 2004
by John Roth
Blue Devil Weekly
DURHAM, N.C. - While the start of March Madness occupies most of the collegiate sports audience this weekend, Mat Madness will be a focal point for one segment of the population.
The 74th NCAA Wrestling Championships will be held in St. Louis from Mar. 18-20 and the Duke Blue Devils will be well-represented with four competitors, all of whom have dreamed about this moment as much as Chris Duhon or Alana Beard have focused on basketball postseason play.
"It's been my goal since I was a senior in high school," said Duke junior Adam Benitez of Santa Ana, Calif. "I've always dreamed of going to NCAAs and being among the top in the nation, and now it's finally coming true. I have a chance to go out there and become All-American."
Benitez, juniors Frank Cornely and Levi Craig and freshman Christian Smith all earned automatic bids to the NCAA event by winning ACC championships in their weight classes two weeks ago. While many of their classmates spent last week on spring break, this quartet was busy honing technique and getting mentally prepared for their trip to nationals.
They went to Chapel Hill for workouts with some of UNC's national qualifiers, but it also helped that the four are close enough in weight to practice with each other. Smith at 125 pounds and Benitez at 133 are workout partners, while the same arrangement holds for Craig at 174 pounds and Cornely at 184.
"It's a shared experience to go with your teammates," said Craig. "We've all worked hard together so it's nice to have four guys going. And we can be together as a team while we're there, it's not just like individuals competing."
Clar Anderson, Duke's head wrestling coach, has been to nationals numerous times as a competitor and coach and has spent part of his preparation time trying to put his wrestlers at ease so they can be relaxed when it comes time to perform.
"I'm trying to let them know this is like any other meet," he said. "Hopefully they will go in there with confidence, realizing that they won a championship to qualify for the tournament and not go in there in awe of their opponents. If they go out there and just wrestle, they'll do well. I've been there, I've wrestled there and I know these young men have what it takes. Hopefully I can get them to believe that, to buy into it, and give me their best out there."
This is the first trip to nationals for all four. Cornely didn't wrestle for Duke last year, redshirting to rehab an injury. Benitez and Craig both had losing records and have shown tremendous growth this year.
"When the season started I looked in my weight class and thought I could definitely win it," Craig said of his ACC title. "It was very early in the season but it was definitely in the back of my head all the time, working toward it, working toward it. It was one of those things where a dream becomes reality."
"Part of it is getting more mature and part of it is the team," added Benitez. "It's a lot more exciting this year. In some previous years we didn't really have the attitude in the room of going out and dominating. Some people would slack off. This year everyone has been really into it and that's helped me a lot. It's gotten me excited about the sport again. In previous years I wasn't as excited."
Benitez also benefitted from dropping down a weight class, from 141 pounds to 133. He has been almost unbeatable since making that move at midseason. "I'm just trying to get my stuff going and be more confident in my stuff," he said. "I do my best when I'm moving a lot, when I have motion going, moving them around and getting them off balance. Sometimes I get stagnant in my stance and just hold on. When I'm doing that i'm not at my best."
All four were at their best in the ACC this year. Smith, Benitez and Craig were undefeated in regular season conference matches to earn top seeds in their weights, while Cornely was a No. 2 seed. Across the board, top seeds won all but two weight classes.
"Before we walked out for the opening ceremony (prior to the finals), we all made a pact that we were all going to win it," Cornely recalled. "I was a little nervous as the last one. The other three already did it so I had to hold up my end of the bargain. It was nice that all four of us got the job done."
Smith has attended the NCAA meet once in the past. As a high school junior, his coach promised to take him to watch the meet if he won his state championship. Smith came through, so he and his coach went to the meet in New York City that March. "It was an awesome experience to watch," he said. "It's big, three days full of wrestling, close matches. You just have to stay in there and stay focused and win the close ones."
Sharpening that mental focus has been a key element of training for all four Blue Devils heading to the NCAAs.
"The thing for me is to have the mentality that I'm as good as any of the other guys out there," said Cornely. "Every single year in almost every single weight class, there's at least one guy who's unseeded who will place, and sometimes there's an unseeded guy who wins or pulls a big upset. It happens every year. I want to be that guy this year. I'm going to be unseeded but I'm as good as anybody there, so if I keep that mindset I'll do good things while I'm there."
"I just want to see what I can do," added Craig. "The next step is All-American. I've done the ACC title, now I have to shift gears and look forward to trying to be All-American. I have two more years after this, but I want to do it this year. I figure why not? I know I can compete. I just have to step up my game a little and see what I can do."
Ness to NCAA Swimming
Duke swimmer Katie Ness heads to the NCAA Swimming Championships this week. The Blue Devil sophomore is expected to compete in three events at the women's competition in College Station, Tex., Mar. 18-20.
Ness will take aim at the 200 individual medley, the 200 freestyle and the 100 butterfly. A couple of weeks ago she won the ACC title in the 200 IM, becoming Duke's first ACC champ since Olympian Nancy Hogshead in 1981. Ness took second place in the ACC in the 100 fly. Ness made quite a splash as a freshman last year, earning All-ACC honors with second place finishes in the 100 and 200 fly. After missing this past fall with a knee injury, she returned to the pool and set four individual school records at the ACC meet while swimming on three school-record relays.
Ness is seeded 15th in the 200 IM, 17th in the 100 fly and 61st in the 200 free for the NCAA meet.
Four fencers to NCAA
Four Duke fencers have qualified for the NCAA Championships slated for Mar. 25-29 in Waltham, Mass. Freshmen Anne Kercsmar and Ibtihaj Muhammad from the women's team and junior Nathan Bragg and freshman Benjamin Hendricks from the men's team will represent the Blue Devils at nationals.
The four qualified with strong finishes at last week's regional competition hosted by Drew University. Muhammad took second place in saber, Kercsmar took third in epee, Bragg took fourth in epee and Hendricks placed eighth in foil. Additionally, John Cornwell took ninth in saber and could receive an at-large bid later.
Head coach Alex Beguinet has now had a total of 64 fencers (57 male, seven female) qualify for the NCAA Championships during his 19-year coaching tenure at Duke. The Blue Devils have had nine All-Americas and one NCAA champion (Jeremy Kahn, 1996).
Rowbury earns All-America honors in track
Duke sent three women to the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., last weekend.
Sophomore Shannon Rowbury became the third woman in Duke history to earn All-America honors in indoor track when she placed eighth in the mile run with a time of 4:41.17. Rowbury had the 10th best time in the Friday prelims before moving up a couple of places in the Saturday final. The San Francisco native joins former Devils Sheela Agrawal (3,000 meters) and Jillian Schwartz (pole vault) as indoor All-Americas. Agrawal and Schwartz both earned their honors in 2001.
Freshman Debra Vento just missed All-America status by placing 11th in the high jump. Junior Paige Miller took 14th place in the 5,000 meters with a time of 16:27.12.
Players Mentioned
Fly/IM
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