Blue Devils Round Out Day Three at ACC Championship

Friday, February 27

Atlanta, Ga.

All Day

Duke University

Day Three at Men's ACC Championship

Blue Devils Round Out Day Three at ACC Championship

2/27/2015 8:00:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Duke Sports Information

ATLANTA – The Duke men broke one conference and three school records and qualified eight swimmers for individual finals events Friday at the 2015 ACC Men's Swimming and Diving Championship, hosted by Georgia Tech at the Yellow Jackets' Aquatic Center.

“We had a great morning session,” said head coach Dan Colella. “It was exciting to have eight people make it back tonight. And with those that didn't make it back, we still had a number of lifetime bests. It was a really great session.”

A year after earning All-ACC honors in the 400-yard individual medley, sophomore Michael Miller once again solidified a spot in the event championship final, his second in as many days. Looking smooth in the preliminaries, he broke his own program record with a 3:45.53 performance for the fourth-fastest time of the morning session. Miller surpassed the NCAA provisional standard a second time in the evening final, touching at 3:47.03 to come in sixth overall.

Junior David Armstrong advanced to his first final as an individual, representing the Blue Devils in the 100 butterfly bonus final. The transfer student, who helped the 200 medley relay gain NCAA automatic qualification on the first night of the meet, turned in a 47.74 clocking to take fifth in the heat and 21st overall. That mark was good for an NCAA provisional cut and the third-fastest in program history.

In the 200 freestyle, sophomore Bradley Cline made his way back to the evening session for the second consecutive year. The San Francisco, Calif., native went 1:37.90 during preliminaries for a season-best and NCAA 'B' cut. Cline's finals time of 1:38.25 placed him eighth in the bonus final and 24th overall.

After setting the conference record in the 100 breaststroke and securing a trip to the 2015 NCAA Championship during the regular season, sophomore Peter Kropp broke the ACC Championship meet record and paced the field in preliminaries with a mark of 52.17. Kropp, who took fourth in the championship final as a freshman last season, was second to the wall Friday evening (52.71) before being disqualified.

Fellow sophomore Dylan Payne posted a career-best 54.23 in the 100 breaststroke preliminaries to rank fifth all-time at Duke before taking seventh in the consolation final (54.65).

The Blue Devils had three swimmers back for the final individual event of the night, the 100 backstroke. Sophomore James Peek eclipsed the previous program record of 48.17 in preliminaries with a time of 47.94, earning a place in the consolation final. He came back to touch at 48.79 in finals for a 16th-place finish overall. Sophomores Kaz Takabayashi (48.63) and Joey Maginnis (49.08) both notched career-bests in preliminaries and went on to place 21st and 24th, respectively.

Another highlight for Duke came at the conclusion of the evening session, as Takabayashi, Kropp, Armstrong and Peek combined to take down the school record in the 400 medley relay with a 3:11.71 showing. The relay placed ninth overall to give the Blue Devils 313 total points at the end of Friday's events. That ranked the squad ninth in the team standings with one full day of action remaining.

“The evening turned out to be not as great as this morning,” Colella said. “We were a bit flat and some of the performances weren't quite as fast as this morning. We had a meeting prior to the relay and I was actually very proud of the way they were able to rally and put together some great splits and break the school record. It was a great way to finish the session. I think we should be ready to go tomorrow morning.”

The final day of competition in Atlanta will feature preliminaries and finals of the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and the 200 butterfly as well as the 1,650 freestyle and the 400 freestyle relay.

Top Duke Finishers by Event:
Men's 400-Yard Individual Medley: Michael Miller (6th), 3:47.03
Men's 100-Yard Butterfly: David Armstrong (21st), 47.74
Men's 200-Yard Freestyle: Bradley Cline (24th), 1:38.25
Men's 100-Yard Breaststroke: Dylan Payne (15th), 54.65
Men's 100-Yard Backstroke: James Peek (16th), 48.79
Men's 400-Yard Medley Relay: Kaz Takabayashi, Peter Kropp, David Armstrong, James Peek (9th), 3:11.71