Program Records Continue to Fall at ACC Championship

Thursday, February 26

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Day Two at Men's ACC Championship

Program Records Continue to Fall at ACC Championship

2/26/2015 8:55:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

ATLANTA – Blue Devil swimmers continued to rewrite the program record book and all-time top-10 performance list Thursday on the second day of the 2015 ACC Men's Swimming and Diving Championship at Georgia Tech's Aquatic Center. On the day, the Duke men broke school records in two events and posted eight all-time top-10 marks.

Duke's young talent was on display early in the day as freshman Matt Johnson advanced to the 500-yard freestyle bonus final in his ACC Championship debut. He broke the program record in the event during preliminaries with a 4:26.32 swim before returning to the water Thursday evening to shave nearly two seconds off of his earlier performance at 4:24.29. Closing the race with impressive speed, Johnson surpassed his own school record and earned an NCAA provisional cut.

Another rookie climbed into the program's all-time top-10 in the 500 freestyle during the morning session, as Alex Peña recorded a career-best 4:27.16 to rank fourth in program history.

“The freshmen did a great job, just like they did last night on the relay,” said head coach Dan Colella. “For Alex and Matt to do what they did this morning was terrific, and Matt was able to make it back tonight. I think there were some nerves there this morning, but tonight he swam his race and as a result dropped another two seconds. We're very proud of that performance, and it just went from there.”

The Blue Devils were well-represented in the 200 IM, with three swimmers making it back for finals. A year after finishing 13th in the conference in the event, sophomore Michael Miller earned a spot in the championship final with a preliminaries time of 1:45.33. That mark broke his own school record, but it would not stand for long as the Houston, Texas native went even faster Thursday evening at 1:45.26 to place eighth overall.

Fellow sophomore Bradley Cline also improved upon his 200 IM showing at last year's ACC meet, moving up to 11th in the conference with a 1:46.64 finals swim. Classmate Peter Kropp competed in the bonus final, jumping to third on Duke's all-time performance list at 1:47.01.

“The 200 IM was big,” Colella said. “Any time you can get multiple people back at night in a particular event, that's where we were able to make some ground up on some schools that were ahead of us. I know we can do that again in several of our events tomorrow.”

Sophomore James Peek kept the momentum rolling in the 50 freestyle, winning the consolation final in a career-best 19.74 for the second-fastest time in program history.

In the final event of the evening, Peek teamed with senior Stefan Knight, junior David Armstrong and sophomore Mike Seaberg to earn a seventh-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay. The group won the first heat in the event and clocked the second-fastest mark on the Blue Devils' all-time top-10 at 1:18.83.

“Every swim tonight was an improvement on our performances this morning,” Colella said. “We always talk about, whichever final we're in, the objective is to score as high as they can and just keep moving up as high as they can. They all did a phenomenal job there.”

The Blue Devils sit in ninth place heading into the third day of competition with a team score of 216 points. NC State leads the field with 495 points, followed by Virginia Tech (459) and North Carolina (453).

Friday's events in Atlanta will include the preliminaries and finals of the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and the 100 backstroke as well as the 400 medley relay.

Top Duke Finishers by Event:
Men's 500-Yard Freestyle: Matt Johnson (21st), 4:24.29
Men's 200-Yard Individual Medley: Michael Miller (8th), 1:45.26
Men's 50-Yard Freestyle: James Peek (9th), 19.74
Men's 200-Yard Freestyle Relay: James Peek, Stefan Knight, David Armstrong, Mike Seaberg (7th), 1:18.83

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