Twichell?s Record-Breaking Night Helps Duke To Sixth-Place Finish

Saturday, February 21

College Park, Md.

All Day

Duke University

Day Four

Twichell Named Student-Athlete Of The Week

Twichell?s Record-Breaking Night Helps Duke To Sixth-Place Finish

2/21/2009 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

COLLEGE PARK, Md. ? Duke sophomore Ashley Twichell became an ACC champion in the 1650 freestyle Saturday evening at the 2009 ACC Women's Swimming & Diving Championships at the University of Maryland's Eppley Recreation Center. Twichell's performance helped Duke overcome a five-point deficit to Clemson heading into today's competition as they jumped from seventh to sixth place in matching last season's team finish at the conference meet.

Twichell's Duke-record 15:56.50 swim is the new ACC Championships meet record as well as a school record by over 10 seconds, as she set another NCAA ?B' standard in the event. On her way to the 1650 record, Twichell also broke the standing Duke record in the 1000 free (9:37.57) in the process. She is now the only Blue Devil ever to dip below 16 minutes in the mile-long race.

She was Duke's second ACC champion of the weekend as freshman diver Abby Johnston won the three-meter last night.

“We're extremely proud of how everyone performed, as the majority of our athletes had lifetime bests this week,” said head coach Dan Colella. “We were hoping to move up a spot this year, but with as competitive as the conference was this year, there's no question that finishing sixth this year is a much greater accomplishment on our team's part and we look forward to next season. We saw some great things all weekend to build on with our young team, and the future looks bright.”

Duke's Rose O'Connor and Jackie Fasano were 13th and 17th, respectively, behind Twichell in the 1650, with O'Connor coming across in 16:43.50 and Fasano in 16:58.43.

Junior Meredith Bannon placed fifth in the championship finals of the 200 breaststroke in a school-record 2:14.82, while junior Shannon Beall took sixth in the championship final of the 200 butterfly, setting a school-record 1:59.58 as she edged Olympian Nancy Hogshead's 28-year-old mark in the event.

Duke's 400 free relay team of Beall, Kirstie Jeffrey, Katie Magee, and Steffi Niessl also set a school record with their time of 3:23.67. In this morning's preliminaries, Jeffrey's split was a school record time before Beall came back tonight in the finals and re-broke it, as her leadoff split of 50.53 is a new Duke best for the 100.

In the women's 200 backstroke, Duke freshman Meghan Dwyer swam 2:00.35, taking 16th, after setting the school record in the event in the morning's prelims with a 1:59.96.

On the boards, Duke's platform diving specialist Julie Brummond finished sixth in the conference, scoring a 242.55.

In team scoring, Virginia defended its team title from a season ago, winning the meet with 848 points, followed by North Carolina (602.5), Virginia Tech (451), Florida State (398.5), Maryland (332), and Duke (307). The Blue Devils had been in seventh for all three days of competition entering today, before surpassing Clemson on the final day to take sixth place. Behind the Tigers, Miami, N.C. State, Georgia Tech, and Boston College rounded out the 11-team conference finishes.

The Blue Devil men will take their shot at the ACC Championships next week, traveling to UMD to compete Feb. 25-28. Duke finished ninth last season and will look to move up in the league standings after a 6-3 regular-season campaign.

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