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Swimming & Diving
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Wednesday, February 25
Atlanta, Ga.
All Day
Duke University
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Day One at Men's ACC Championship
Blue Devils Qualify 200 Medley Relay to NCAAs
2/25/2015 4:47:00 PM | Swimming & Diving
ATLANTA – The Blue Devil men will send a relay to the NCAA Championship for the first time in program history after gaining automatic qualification in the 200-yard medley relay on the opening day of action at the 2015 Men's ACC Swimming and Diving Championship at Georgia Tech's Aquatic Center. Duke swimmers also went 2-for-2 in breaking program relay records to kick off the conference championship in thrilling fashion.
In the opening event of the week, the Blue Devils' 200 medley relay of sophomore Kaz Takabayashi, sophomore Peter Kropp, junior David Armstrong and sophomore James Peek earned automatic qualification to the NCAA meet with a school record-breaking mark of 1:25.03. That time, nearly a second faster than the previous program record, placed Duke second out of 11 relays in the event for a podium finish. The top four relays in the field all surpassed the NCAA 'A' standard of 1:25.63.
Takabayashi started off the relay with a 22.18 split, shaving time off of his performance in the leadoff position a couple of weeks ago at the Carolina College Invitational. The Blue Devils were fifth in the heat at the first exchange but moved up before getting challenged by Louisville in lane four. Following strong showings by Kropp and Armstrong, Peek closed with an 18.99 split to help secure the podium finish and an 'A' cut.
“We've been excited about the 200 medley relay all season long and we knew we had the opportunity tonight to really shine,” said head coach Dan Colella. “We couldn't be more proud of how they executed. Each and every one of them was phenomenal. James on the end, to go in that pack of four individuals and to run down Louisville and squeeze in there for second place, we couldn't ask for anything better. All four of them are on their way to Iowa now.”
Another program record fell in the next event, as sophomore Michael Miller, sophomore Bradley Cline, freshman Nick Bigot and freshman Alex Peña won the first heat of the 800 freestyle relay. The group took down the previous program benchmark of 6:34.65, set at last year's ACC Championship, with a 6:27.07 clocking. That time also surpassed the NCAA provisional standard in the event and placed the Blue Devils seventh overall in the conference.
In addition, Miller's leadoff split of 1:36.66 represented the second-fastest 200 freestyle mark on Duke's all-time top-10.
“On that relay we had two freshmen and two sophomores, and all of them posted fantastic splits,” Colella said. “We loved the way everybody got it started tonight, and we look forward to keeping it rolling tomorrow in prelims. It's important that we tap into that energy tomorrow.”
At the end of the first day of action in Atlanta, the Blue Devil men were tied for eighth in the team standings with 102 points.
A full day of swimming is on tap for Thursday, beginning with preliminaries at 10 a.m. Events for the second day in Atlanta include the 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 freestyle and the 200 freestyle relay.
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