School Records Fall at GAC Invite

Friday, November 18

Greensboro, N.C.

All Day

Duke University

Day Two at NC State GAC Invite

School Records Fall at GAC Invite

11/18/2016 8:46:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Live Results Results

By: Duke Sports Information

GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Blue Devil women broke school records in three events and the men featured an individual event winner in senior Peter Kropp as the squads continued competition at the NC State GAC Invite Friday.

Both Duke teams remain in third place in the team standings with one full day of competition remaining at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

“The first day was a really great day for us – probably the best first day of results that we've had in quite some time,” said head coach Dan Colella. “It's tough a lot of times coming off a high like that, but they did a great job this morning and we got a lot of people back this evening. They just really came in and built off of that. It seems like they're just getting a little bit quicker and a little bit sharper every session.”

In the opening event of the evening, Duke's 200-yard medley relays both raced to second-place finishes. Sophomore Mickayla Hinkle, senior Ashleigh Shanley, freshman Alyssa Marsh and senior Maddie Rusch posted the third-fastest time in the history of the women's program at 1:38.49 before seniors Kaz Takabayashi, Kropp and Joey Maginnis teamed with sophomore Yusuke Legard to clock the second-fastest mark on the men's all-time performance list at 1:26.27.

After senior Liza Bragg and freshman Roger Kriegl turned in a pair of 14th-place showings in the 400 IM, the Blue Devil women boosted their team score with four swimmers in the 100 butterfly 'A' final. Junior Leah Goldman broke her second individual school record in as many nights, taking second overall at 52.22. Marsh was right behind her to the wall in third (52.79), while junior Isabella Paez was sixth (53.48) and freshman Kylie Jordan seventh (53.95). All four swims surpassed the NCAA provisional standard in the event.

Senior Joey Maginnis paced the men with a seventh-place finish in the 100 butterfly (48.92) after matching his career best of 48.43 in the event preliminaries.

The Duke women saw another record fall in the 200 freestyle, as senior Brittany Friese took down the benchmark for the second time on the day. After going 1:47.78 in preliminaries, Friese returned to the water for a 1:47.67 clocking, which placed her third overall. Sophomore Hunter Aitchison also earned a spot in the 'A' final, taking fifth (1:48.69), and Shanley and sophomore Alyssa Arwood followed with top-seven finishes in the 100 breaststroke 'A' final.

Kropp and senior classmate Dylan Payne swept the top two spots in the men's 100 breaststroke, with Payne notching a career-best 53.09 performance. Sophomore Max St. George then finished third (47.43) and Takabayashi fifth (48.01) in the men's 100 backstroke, while Hinkle took 11th in the same event on the women's side.

In diving, senior Kirby Quinn led the women for the second-straight night, taking fourth on the 1-meter board (272.40), and freshman Nathaniel Hernandez was fifth for the men at the 3-meter height (351.20).

The Blue Devil women took down a third school record at the end of the evening, surpassing the benchmark set last season in the 800 freestyle relay. Junior Verity Abel, Aitchison, Goldman and Friese combined for a time of 7:12.73 to touch second overall. In the men's race, freshman Miles Williams, sophomore Sean Tate, freshman Sheldon Boboff and senior Michael Miller were seventh with the ninth-fastest mark in program history at 6:39.25.

“It's a long day and a lot of racing, and to finish with the 800 free relay is always a real test,” Colella said. “They did a great job and the women were able to break the school record to finish out the evening. Very, very excited about where we stand right now and we're just looking forward to tomorrow's events and continuing what they started.”

The NC State GAC Invite wraps up Saturday with the 1,650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, platform diving and the 400 freestyle relay. Live results will be available here.

Team Scores:
Duke Combined: 4th/9 (2000.5)
Duke Women: 3rd/8 (1062.5)
Duke Men: 3rd/7 (858)

Top Duke Finishers by Event:
Women's 200-Yard Medley Relay: Mickayla Hinkle, Ashleigh Shanley, Alyssa Marsh, Maddie Rusch (2nd), 1:38.49
Men's 200-Yard Medley Relay: Kaz Takabayashi, Peter Kropp, Joey Maginnis, Yusuke Legard (2nd), 1:26.27