Upcoming Event: Swimming & Diving versus Boston College on September 26, 2025 at 4 p.m. Diving / 5 p.m. Swimming
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4 p.m. Diving / 5 p.m. Swimming
Swimming & Diving
vs Boston College
Swimming & Diving Heads to Nike Cup Invitational
11/16/2011 12:06:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
DURHAM, N.C. - The Duke men's and women's swimming and diving teams will stay close to home this week as they travel to nearby Chapel Hill, N.C. to compete in the 2011 Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup Invitational beginning on Thursday, Nov. 17. The three-day meet will be hosted by North Carolina at the Maurice J. Koury Natatorium Thursday through Sunday, with preliminaries taking place each day at 10 a.m. and event finals each night at 6 p.m. The platform diving competition will be held Saturday, Nov. 19 at Duke's Taishoff Aquatic Pavilion.
Participating teams include host North Carolina (ranked 11th and 12th in the latest CollegeSwimming.com/CSCAA Div. I men's and women's polls, respectively), Duke, the U.S. Naval Academy, South Carolina, East Carolina and Old Dominion. The Harvard men's swimming and diving team will also take part in the meet, while diving teams from James Madison and Drexel are set to compete as well.
The Blue Devil men enter the weekend with an overall ledger of 3-3 and a mark of 1-3 in ACC action following a 112-26 victory over the Savannah College of Art & Design and a 50-89 loss to 19th-ranked NC State on Nov. 5 in Raleigh, N.C. Meanwhile, the Duke women posted a 118-16 win over SCAD but fell to the Wolfpack, 84-56, to move to 2-4 on the season and 0-4 in the conference.
At last year's Nike Cup Invitational, the Blue Devil women recorded a second-place finish behind only host North Carolina, while the men placed fourth out of nine participating squads.
As they approach the conclusion of their fall slate, both the men's and women's teams continue to hold some of the top performances in the ACC so far during the 2011-12 season. Junior Ben Hwang, who collected ACC Men's Swimming & Diving Performer of the Week honors for two consecutive weeks at the start of the season, owns the conference's best mark in the 50 free. Hwang notched an NCAA 'B' cut time of 19.84 in a season-opening win over Maryland on Oct. 22. That mark is also good for the third-best time in the nation. In addition, Hwang also recorded the ACC's fourth-best time of the year in the 100 free - a 44.66 clocking against the Terrapins.
The men's team also features the ACC's top three performances in the 100 breast, posted by graduate student Piotr Safronczyk (55.85), sophomore Hunter Knight (56.65) and junior Jim Zuponeck (56.69) in the win over Maryland. The Blue Devils' 200 medley relay of sophomore Steven Gasparini, Safronczyk, senior Ben Tuben and Hwang own the conference's top time in the event at 1:30.05, while Hwang, junior Adam Flur, Safronczyk and Tuben combined for the ACC's third-best clocking in the 200 free relay (1:22.09).
On the women's side, sophomore Christine Wixted continues to be one of the conference's top performers in the breaststroke events. A two-time ACC Performer of the Week already this season, Wixted owns the ACC's best performance of the year in the 100 breast, an NCAA 'B' qualifying mark of 1:02.05. Wixted also ranks third in the conference in the 200 breast with another NCAA 'B' cut time of 2:14.92. Senior Rose O'Connor's clocking of 16:49.97 in the 1,650 free ranks second in the ACC, while freshman Megan McCarroll has also been impressive, as she ranks second in the conference in the 200 back (2:01.05) and third in the 100 back (55.82).
Duke's diving corps has also gotten off to a strong start, as senior Jessica Lyden ranks second in the ACC in one-meter diving (323.41) and eighth on the three-meter board (315.15). Lyden's best scores of the season in both events have qualified her for the NCAA Zone Diving Championships. Senior Cody Kolodziejzyk and junior Jordan Long have also punched their tickets to the NCAA Zone Championships in both the one-meter and three-meter events.
The schedule of events for the 2011 Nike Cup Invitational is as follows:
Thursday, Nov. 17
200-Yard Freestyle Relay
500-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Individual Medley
50-Yard Freestyle
Women's One-Meter Diving; Men's Three-Meter Diving
400-Yard Medley Relay
Friday, Nov. 18
200-Yard Medley Relay
400-Yard Individual Medley
100-Yard Butterfly
200-Yard Freestyle
100-Yard Breaststroke
100-Yard Backstroke
Women's Three-Meter Diving; Men's One-Meter Diving
800-Yard Freestyle Relay
Saturday, Nov. 19
1,650-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Backstroke
100-Yard Freestyle
200-Yard Breaststroke
200-Yard Butterfly
Platform Diving (to be held at Duke's Taishoff Aquatic Pavilion)
400-Yard Freestyle Relay
Full results will be available at the conclusion of each day at www.GoDuke.com.
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Players Mentioned
Freestyle
/ Swimming & Diving
Back/Fly/IM
/ Swimming & Diving
Sprints
/ Swimming & Diving
Breast/IM
/ Swimming & Diving
Diving
/ Swimming & Diving
Diving
/ Swimming & Diving
Diving
/ Swimming & Diving
Back/Fly/IM
/ Swimming & Diving
Distance/Free
/ Swimming & Diving
Breast/Free
/ Swimming & Diving
Butterfly
/ Swimming & Diving
Breast/IM
/ Swimming & Diving
Breast/IM
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