Swimmers Improve Times at Last Chance Meet

Saturday, February 27

Athens, Ga.

All Day

Duke University

Day One at Bulldog Last Chance Meet

Swimmers Improve Times at Last Chance Meet

2/28/2016 8:07:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Season Top Times Results

By: Duke Sports Information

ATHENS, Ga. – A trio of Blue Devil women traveled to Athens over the weekend to compete at the Bulldog Invitational, hosted by the University of Georgia at Gabrielsen Natatorium.

Freshman Mickayla Hinkle took down the program record in the 100-yard backstroke, clocking 53.04 in Saturday's preliminaries. That time shaved .4 seconds off her previous season best in the event and was under the NCAA 'B' standard of 55.09.

Sophomore Verity Abel competed in the 1,650 freestyle, dropping more than 11 seconds off her season best to touch at 16:17.89. She earned a 'B' cut with the swim, in addition to ranking second on Duke's all time performance list. Abel's 1,000 split of 9:50.39 was also good for a personal-best time and the second fastest in program history.

Freshman Maddie Hess joined Hinkle and Abel in Athens, taking part in the sprint events. She went 22.56 in a 50 freestyle time trial and tapped the wall at 50.04 in the 100 freestyle preliminaries. The Brandon, Fla., native owns NCAA 'B' cuts this season in both of those events as well as in the 100 and 200 backstroke.

The Blue Devil women are coming off of a sixth-place finish at the 2016 ACC Championship. The sixth-place showing was the best for the women's program since 2010.

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