Oct. 20, 2010
Duquesne's swimming team will open the 2010-11 season on Friday, Oct. 22 as it travels to Harrisonburg, Va. to face host James Madison and Atlantic 10 foe Richmond in a two-day event.
With 20 student-athletes returning and five solid newcomers joining the team, Duquesne is primed to make another run at the top of the Atlantic 10 standings this season.
Under the guidance of 10th-year head coach David Sheets, the Dukes have three returning swimmers who account for seven of the 14 current individual school records in senior Erin Sykes and sophomores Miriam McGeath and Caitlin Zajko.
Sykes holds the school standards in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650-yard freestyle events while McGeath set records in the 200 butterfly and the 400 IM and Zajko set records in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes as freshmen.
Also returning for the Red and Blue are senior Kirstie Shumaker who had the team's top time in the 100 butterfly and 200 IM last season, senior Angela Majkut who had the top times in the 200 free and 1,650 free, senior Tara VanNatta who was tops in the 200 back, junior Morgan Claycomb who led in the 100 back, junior Amanda McClelland who was the leader in the 500 free and junior Hannah Kondrotas who paced the 1,000 free.
James Madison is an up-and-coming program from the Colonial Athletic Association. The JMU Dukes finished third in the CAA standings last season. Richmond, which finished second at last year's Atlantic 10 Championship, was chosen to finish second again in 2011 in a pre-season coaches poll.
Competition will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Friday with seven individual and two relay races on the slate. On Saturday, two relays and six individual races will take place, beginning at 10:30 a.m.
