Pittsburgh, Pa. – The 400-yard freestyle relay sealed the deal for the Duquesne University swimming & diving team as it captured a 180-177 victory over Marshall in its one vs. one meet on Saturday morning inside Towers Pool.

A total of nine pool records were broken between the two teams, six of them coming from the Dukes. The nine pool records are the most in a single meet on the women's side. Four different individuals as well as the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay teams highlighted the meet this afternoon.

Marshall held a slight lead heading into the final event of the day which was the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of freshmen Kaitlyn Connors, Ashley Freel, sophomore Lexi Sundgren, senior Haley Scholer captured the gold while securing the pool record with a time of 3:25.71. The team beat the previous pool record by five seconds which was held by Duquesne since 2020 with a time of 3:30.43. The team of sophomore Julia Sobun, senior Orla Egan, freshman Rachel Howard, and junior Katie Simpson took home the bronze in the same event while touching the wall at 3:29.26.

In the 500-yard freestyle, Sundgren secured the top spot while defeating her own pool record by touching the wall at 4:56.39. In the one vs. one event, Scholer kicked things off by capturing the gold in the 100-yard backstroke, defeating Mia McBride and beating her own pool record by clocking in at 54.05. Freshman Jess Burns followed that up with another first-place finish for the Dukes, capturing the pool record in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.31. The Previous record was held by Madison Dickert, who posted a time of 1:03.71 in 2020.

The 200-yard medley relay team of Scholer, Burns, freshman Rachel Howard, and Connors captured the top spot while earning themselves the pool record with a time of 1:43.04. The previous record was held by the Dukes since 2020, where they registered a time of 1:44.67. In the very next event, Connors collected an individual pool record in the 50-yard free, defeating Kseniia Luniushina (23.36) by six tenth of a second (23.30). Halle Myers of St. Bonaventure previously held the record with a time of 23.48.

Sundgren added another first-place finish to her resume, defeating Molly Warner in the 100-yard freestyle by touching the wall at 51.82.

In the first relay of the day, the team of Connors, Howard, Burns, and Scholer finished in second in the 200 free relay while registering a time of 1:34.70. Freel (1:53.38) and sophomore Julia Sobun (1:54.42) finished second and third in the 200-yard free while freshmen Caitlin Horning (2:00.88) and Sierra Snow (2:02.42) finished with silver and bronze in the 200-yard backstroke. Junior Sydney Severini battled Audrey West in the 100-yard IM, finishing with a time of 58.69.

QUOTABLE
"I was pleased with the team's efforts these last two days," head coach David Sheets said. "Round one, the ladies were pretty good, but I thought on Round two we were a little flat with regards to racing. It seemed a good night's sleep is all we needed. The ladies came with a ton of energy this morning and really stepped up. I think the format Ian and I came up with was a great change from the norm and brought a lot of energy (as evident from all the pool records) and competitiveness of both teams. It was back and forth most of the session on Saturday with some fantastic 1 v 1 races. Having the meet come down to the last relay was a great way to end a competitive and energetic meet. This was probably one of the most exciting dual meets I've been a part of."

UP NEXT
Duquesne will be idle for a couple weeks before the diving team heads to Clarion to battle the Golden Eagles on Saturday, Nov. 9 at 12:00 p.m. inside Waldo S. Tippin Natatorium.