Fast Swims Pace Duke to Strong Start at Nike Cup

Thursday, November 20

Chapel Hill, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at Nike Cup Invitational

Fast Swims Pace Duke to Strong Start at Nike Cup

11/20/2014 10:36:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Freshman Leah Goldman and sophomore Bradley Cline both swam to second-place finishes in the 200-yard individual medley events to lead Duke on the opening night of action at the 2014 Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup Invitational, held at North Carolina's Koury Natatorium.

Following one day of competition, the Blue Devil women sit in fourth place out of eight teams with 344.5 points while the men totaled 216 points to finish seventh out of nine squads in the initial team standings.

Goldman posted the third-fastest mark in school history and surpassed the NCAA provisional standard with a 2:00.30 showing in Thursday evening's 200 IM championship final. Cline matched her second-place finish with a 1:47.09 clocking in the men's final, and also earned an NCAA 'B' cut. Sophomore Peter Kropp joined Cline in the 'A' final, taking sixth at 1:49.70.

Duke saw one program record fall in the women's 100 backstroke, as sophomore Jessie Sutherland led off the 400 medley relay with a 54.20 split. Sophomore Ashleigh Shanley, Goldman and sophomore Maddie Rusch followed suit on the relay as the Blue Devils placed third overall at 3:41.42. The women also collected a third-place finish in the first event of the evening, the 200 freestyle relay. In that race, Goldman, Sutherland, junior Chelsea Ye and Rusch combined for a 1:31.02 performance to rank third on Duke's all-time top-10 list.

In addition to competing on both relays, Rusch led the field in the 50 freestyle preliminaries with a 22.72 clocking for an NCAA 'B' cut. The New Canaan, Conn., native returned to the pool during the evening session to tie for fifth at 22.90. The Blue Devil women featured two freshmen swimmers in the 500 freestyle championship final, as Verity Abel came in fifth and Lizzie Devitt eighth. Abel touched in 4:50.31 for the third-best time in program history. Fellow rookie Matt Johnson was the highest finisher on the men's side in 16th (4:35.69).

Sophomore Kirby Quinn paced the Duke diving corps, placing 10th in the women's 3-meter competition and surpassing the NCAA Zone Diving qualification standard with an award of 300.00.

On the day, the Blue Devil swimmers and divers accounted for one school record, 20 lifetime bests, 14 all-time top-10 performances, seven NCAA 'B' cuts and one NCAA Zones qualifying mark.

The Nike Cup Invitational continues Friday, Nov. 21 with the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, women's 1-meter diving, men's 3-meter diving, 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay. Preliminaries begin at 9:30 a.m. in Chapel Hill while finals are slated for 5:30 p.m.

Live results will be available here.

Duke Women: 4th/7 (344.5)
Duke Men: 7th/9 (216)

Top Duke Finishers by Event
Women's 200-Yard Freestyle Relay: Leah Goldman, Jessie Sutherland, Chelsea Ye, Maddie Rusch (3rd), 1:31.02
Men's 200-Yard Freestyle Relay: Benedict Parfit, Mike Seaberg, David Armstrong, Stefan Knight (6th), 1:22.54