Swimming & Diving Through Two Days In South Carolina

Friday, November 21

Columbia, S.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day Two

Swimming & Diving Through Two Days In South Carolina

11/21/2008 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? After two days of competition at the Gamecock Invitational at the University of South Carolina's Carolina Natatorium, the Duke men's and women's swimming and diving teams each stand in third place with one day remaining in the meet.

The men held their ground after finishing in third after yesterday's events, registering a team score of 483 behind North Carolina (908.5) and the hosts South Carolina (548.5). Duke still leads East Carolina (271.5), Syracuse (266.5), and the College of Charleston (112).

The Blue Devil women dropped one slot from second to third after the second day, trailing the Tar Heels (933) and the Gamecocks (556) and edging out ECU (366.5), Syracuse (219), Charleston (37), and Lenoir Rhyne (6).

“These were really two of the best days of swimming I've seen at a championship meet in quite some time,” said head coach Dan Colella. “We're all very excited about the performances so far and about those that we'll be swimming tomorrow.”

Day two began with the 200 medley relay on the women's side, which saw a second-place finish from the Duke squad of Meghan Dwyer, Meredith Bannon, Shannon Beall, and Steffi Niessl in a time of 1:43.42, more than a full second improvement over the foursome's previous season-best. The men's 200 medley relay team of Spencer Booth, Jordan Charles, Nick Garvy, and Andy Osterland then pulled off the win in the event as they came in from the outside lane to defeat the field in a season-best 1:32.34.

Shannon Beall took first in the 100 butterfly in 54.80 after she broke her personal record in the event with a 54.38 in the preliminary swim earlier today. Garvy was second in the 100 fly on the men's side, stopping the clock at 49.13 for a Blue Devil season best and a career best.

Sophomore Ashley Twichell was second in the 200 freestyle, touching in at 1:49.60, Duke's top time of the season, after she clocked a 1:51.12 in the prelims which was also the season-best to that point.

Meredith Bannon won the 100 breast stroke for the Blue Devils as she finished in 1:03.93 ? over a one-second improvement on her previous season-high of 1:05.46 at the N.C.State/Maryland dual meet and bettering the 1:04.68 she swam during prelims today.

Dwyer (56.59) and Niessl (56.89) took 3-4 in the 100 backstroke, both better than the fastest swim to date ? Dwyer's 57.08 vs. N.C. State and Maryland. Booth was then fourth in the event on the men's side, coming in at 50.50.

The squads then closed out day two with the 800 freestyle relay ? the women finishing third and the men fourth in the event. In all, Duke received 41 qualifying performances to tonight's finals.

Among the events left for tomorrow's final day of competition include the 1650 freestyle, the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breast stroke, 200 butterfly, and 4x100 freestyle relay.

Tomorrow's prelims will go off at 10 a.m. with the finals to start at 6 p.m. once again. Live stats are available at GamecocksOnline.com.

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