Davidson Results | Richmond Results

Duquesne's swimming team opened the 2015-16 season by going 1-1 at the Richmond Duals this weekend. The Dukes defeated Davidson, 168-119 on Friday evening before falling to host Richmond, 149-144 Saturday morning.

The weekend started off against Davidson, who finished last season 42 points and one spot behind Duquesne at the 2015 Atlantic 10 Championship in 4th place.

In the relay events, Duquesne had a pair of top two finishes - the 200 yard medley team of Abby Watson, Kayla Owens, Samantha Ray and Gabrielle Sibilia finished 1st with a time of 1:46.32, defeating Davidson's team by over two seconds. Ray, Sibilia, Lexi Santer and Claire Nobles placed second in the 400 yard freestyle, finishing in 3:31.51.

Individually, eight Dukes took 1st place. Taylor Kane (1650 free, 17:56.08), Hallie McCue (100 back, 57.97), Owens (100 breast, 1:05.82), Sibilia (50 free, 24.17), Morgan Fink (200 back, 2:05.12), Abigail Stauffer (200 breast 2:21.57 and 200 IM, 2:07.69), Ray (100 free, 52.18).

Additionally, Watson finished 2nd in the 100 back with a time of 58.01 and 200 back in 2:09.12. Ray was 2nd in the 50 free, finishing in 24.19.

The following day, Duquesne would face the Spiders who are the defending A-10 champions.

Stauffer had another excellent showing, finishing 1st in the 400 yard IM (4:31.22) and 2nd in the 200 yard breast (2:21.71). She was on the 400 yard relay team along with McCue, Owens and Sibilia that took 1st with a time of 3:53.05.

Duquesne 1st place finishers were McCue (100 yard backstroke, 58.57), Ray (100 yard free, 52.50 and 200 yard free, 1:54.52) and the 200 yard free team of Ray, Kristen McKnight, Owens and Sibilia (1:36.04).

"This was a very solid meet for us," said head coach Dave Sheets. "The ladies did a great job of competing against Davidson.Richmond has a program that we think very highly of. For us to go in and compete the way we did speaks volumes about the character and the drive of the ladies in the program. There are still many little things we need to do to get better if we want to accomplish our goals in February, but this was a good step forward."

The Dukes' home opener will be Saturday, Oct. 24th when they take on Youngstown State at noon at Towers Pool.