Rookies Shine on Final Day of ACC Championship

Saturday, February 21

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Day Four at Women's ACC Championship

Rookies Shine on Final Day of ACC Championship

2/21/2015 10:11:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

ATLANTA – Duke swimmers and divers registered another program record and featured a pair of top-eight finishes Saturday to close out the 2015 ACC Women's Swimming and Diving Championship. Freshman diver MaryEllen Targonski earned a spot in the platform championship final and fellow rookie Verity Abel earned a seventh-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle to pace the Blue Devils on the final day of competition at Georgia Tech's Aquatic Center.

Abel kicked off the evening session with an impressive showing in the 1,650 freestyle. The Westport, Conn., native turned in a time of 16:29.73 in the third heat to place seventh in the conference. That clocking was over 14 seconds faster than her previous season best in the mile and ranked her second on Duke's all-time top 10 in the event. In addition, Abel's 1,000 split of 9:57.89 was a personal best and also second all-time in program history.

“Verity had a great meet,” said head coach Dan Colella. “It started with the 500 free on the first night and continued with the 400 IM on the second day, but really culminated with a fantastic swim tonight in the mile. It's great to see a freshman to come in and finish in the top eight. Her performance was a nice accomplishment and a great way for her to close out the meet.”

Another rookie garnered a top-eight finish for the Blue Devils in the women's platform diving competition. Targonski was fourth in the event preliminaries with a personal-best score of 255.90, ranking her fifth on Duke's all-time chart. Her highest-scoring dive of the day came in the preliminary round, when she earned an award of 72.00 points on a forward 3 ½ somersault. In the championship final, Targonski opened strong with 58.80 points on an inward 2 ½. She concluded her list eighth with a score of 239.55 to wrap up a solid debut at her first ACC Championship.

“MaryEllen did great today,” said head diving coach Nunzio Esposto. “She started off this morning leading the field for the first three rounds. It was really phenomenal. I thought she had a chance to final, and she certainly did well. She was psyched and ready to go in tonight's final, and she dove almost as good. I think she was a little nervous, but her entire list today was brand new – she hadn't performed those dives before coming to Duke. For being a freshman and having a new tower list, it was very impressive.”

In addition to the 22 points earned by Targonski, Duke also received scoring from junior Jaimee Gundry, who placed 14th in the preliminaries with an award of 218.95.

The Blue Devils were well-represented in the 200 butterfly finals, with three swimmers advancing to the evening session. Freshman Isabella Paez headlined the trio in the 'B' final, displaying great speed in the final 50 yards to win the heat and place ninth overall. Her mark of 1:57.39 broke her own school record set in the fall and surpassed the NCAA provisional standard in the event. In the bonus final, sophomores Colleen Wixted (2:00.66) and Brittany Friese (2:00.94) both dropped time from their morning swims to finish 20th and 22nd, respectively.

“The 200 fly is one of our stronger events,” Colella said. “We were very excited about how they performed this morning to make it back tonight. Isa swam a very strategic race, swam her race. She is somebody that is really strong in the back half. To see her make the turn at the 150 and be in fifth, and then slowly start tracking everybody down and to win it in the last stroke was pretty incredible.”

The 100 freestyle saw freshman Leah Goldman post the second-fastest mark in school history (49.53) for 11th place and sophomore Maddie Rusch go 50.43 in a 24th-place finish. Duke also placed two swimmers in the bonus final of the 200 backstroke, with sophomore Liza Bragg taking 21st (2:00.37) and freshman Maria Sheridan 24th (2:02.48). Freshman Catie Miller advanced to the first final of her career in the 200 breaststroke, where she finished 24th in a personal-best 2:19.03 to rank 10th all-time at Duke.

In the final event of the evening, the 400 freestyle relay, Goldman, Rusch, junior Chelsea Ye and junior Kathryn Eckhart combined for a season-best time of 3:21.21 to take eighth. That clocking also represented the second-fastest in program history.

At the conclusion of the four-day conference championship, the Blue Devils were 10th out of 13 teams with a total score of 478 points. Virginia took home its eighth consecutive ACC title with 1308.5 points, while North Carolina (1255), Virginia Tech (1018), Louisville (918) and NC State (874) rounded out the top five.

“We're not satisfied with our finish as a team, but we have a very young team and hopefully we learned a lot of lessons that will make us better for next year,” Colella said.

Over the course of the meet, the Blue Devils broke six school records and earned one podium finish as Goldman garnered the first All-ACC honors of her career with a third-place showing in the 100 butterfly Friday evening.

The Duke men will take their turn at the ACC Championship in Atlanta next week, with the meet beginning Wednesday, Feb. 25 and continuing through Saturday, Feb. 28 at the same facility.

Top Duke Finishers by Event:

Women's 1,650-Yard Freestyle: Verity Abel (7th), 16:29.73

Women's 200-Yard Backstroke: Liza Bragg (21st), 2:00.37

Women's 100-Yard Freestyle: Leah Goldman (11th), 49.53

Women's 200-Yard Breaststroke: Catie Miller (24th), 2:19.03

Women's 200-Yard Butterfly: Isabella Paez (9th), 1:57.39

Women's Platform Diving: MaryEllen Targonski (8th), 239.55

Women's 400-Yard Freestyle Relay: Leah Goldman, Maddie Rusch, Chelsea Ye, Kathryn Eckhart (8th), 3:21.21

School Records Broken During 2015 ACC Championship:

200 Free	Brittany Friese	1:48.85
100 Fly	Leah Goldman	52.82/52.28
200 Fly	Isabella Paez	1:57.39
400 IM	Kiera Molloy	4:17.41
800 Free Relay	Paez, Friese, Abel, Devitt	7:17.43