Upcoming Event: Swimming & Diving versus Georgia Tech on January 17, 2026 at 10 a.m. Diving / 11 a.m. Swimming
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10 a.m. Diving / 11 a.m. Swimming
Swimming & Diving
vs Georgia Tech
Duke Joins Florida, UNC at Gamecock Invitational
11/17/2009 10:00:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
DURHAM, N.C. – On Thursday the Duke swimmers will travel to Columbia, S.C. and the campus of the University of South Carolina where they will compete in the annual Gamecock Invitational. The meet runs the course of three days, featuring a preliminary and finals session each day. Competition will take place in the Carolina Natatorium at the Sol Blatt Physical Education Complex.
The Blue Devils will be joined by eight other teams, headlined by the Florida Gators and North Carolina Tar Heels. Last season, the Florida men and women both finished among the top 10 in the nation while the Tar Heel men and women each secured a place amidst the top 20 teams.
Head coach Dan Colella welcomes the intensity of the competition. “It is great that [Florida] is joining us because the team needs to face stiff competition to better prepare them for championship swimming,” he said.
At last year's Gamecock Invitational the Duke men and women both placed third out of seven and many of the swimmers notched their fastest times of the season. Ashley Twichell turned in a dominating first-place finish in the 1650 freestyle, winning the event by more than 30 seconds, setting a Duke school-record, and establishing an NCAA 'B' standard. Twichell also took first place in the 500 freestyle, recording a time of 4:46.01. Her partner in the distance events, Jackie Fasano, contributed two solid swims of her own, taking fourth place in the 1650 freestyle and third place in the 500 freestyle. Other top performers for the women included Meredith Bannon (third, 200 breast), Meghan Dwyer (second, 200 back), and Shannon Beall (first, 100 fly). The men were led by Spencer Booth who claimed third place in the 200 backstroke and Nick Garvy who recorded second place in the 100 fly and third in the 100 freestyle.
Although this year's meet will offer a significantly more challenging field of teams, the Blue Devils will try to improve on their 2008 finishes.
“Our goal, like any team is to try to get more individuals qualified for finals than we did last year,” Colella commented. “This is going to be a great challenge now that Florida will be in the mix.”
For Duke's freshmen, this will be their first collegiate invitational and for some of them it will be their first look at Olympic-caliber talent. Top newcomers Ben Hwang, Emily Barber, and Cara Vogel will have the opportunity to gauge themselves against swimmers from across the southeast.
As Colella sees it, the experience gained will be priceless. “For the freshmen it is again a great trial run to see how they perform for six sessions and perform under greater pressure than what they have seen thus far in dual meets,” he said.
The invitational will be a major test and learning experience for the Blue Devils as they begin to prepare for the championship meets at the end of the season.
The latest results from this year's installment of the Gamecock Invitational can be found at http://tiny.cc/LiveStats.
Players Mentioned
Breastroke
/ Swimming & Diving
Breaststroke
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Fly/IM
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Back/Fly
/ Swimming & Diving
Back/Free
/ Swimming & DivingDistance/Free
/ Swimming & DivingButterfly
/ Swimming & Diving
Sprints
/ Swimming & DivingFreestyle
/ Swimming & Diving
Backstroke
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