Hampton, Va. – Backed by 26 total medals, the Duquesne University swimming and diving team wrapped up competition at the Richmond Duals on Saturday morning with a hard-fought 151–148 victory over the host Spiders in head-to-head action.
The Dukes collected seven gold medals on the final day of competition while securing 11 silvers and eight bronze.
Day two opened with the 200-yard medley relay, where the Duquesne team of sophomore
Ashley Freel, senior
Sydney Severini, sophomore
Rachel Howard, and freshman
Lucy Backus earned a runner-up finish with a time of 1:45.63. The Dukes also claimed third place in the event, as freshman
Norah Kotnik, sophomore
Jess Burns, freshman
Emily Kyre, and sophomore
Kaitlyn Connors touched the wall in 1:47.95.
In the 1650-yard freestyle, senior
Aislinn Mooney claimed the silver medal with a time of 17:55.86. Junior Lexie Sundgren (1:53.79) and Freel (1:54.80) followed with second- and third-place finishes, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle. Freel went on to strike gold in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 55.92, before securing another podium finish with a runner-up showing in the 200 IM at 2:07.60.
Sophomore
Sierra Snow earned the Dukes' first gold medal of the day, winning the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.93. In the same event, freshman
Norah Kotnik claimed the bronze at 58.22. Snow continued her standout performance in the 200-yard backstroke, capturing another gold in 2:01.68, with Kotnik close behind for silver at 2:05.54. Snow capped off her impressive outing by collecting her third gold medal of the day in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing in 5:08.21. In the 100 breaststroke, Burns finished in third with a time of 1:06.30 while freshman
Kira Schrecongost clocked in a time of 2:12.28 in the 200 butterfly to collected a bronze medal. The 50-yard freestyle followed with Backus adding a gold to her medal haul by touching the wall at 23.76.
OFF THE BOARDS
The Duquesne diving team registered a dominating performance off the boards on Saturday morning, taking the top three spots in both the one-meter and three-meter dives. In the one-meter, graduate student
Lola Dragosavac secured the top spot with a final score of 244.35 while senior
Ashley Felitsky followed behind in second with a score of 241.70. Sophomore
Brianne Dempsey registered a final score of 227.20 to finish with the bronze.
In the three-meter, the Dukes continued its momentum, grabbing the top three spots. Felitsky captured the gold with a final score of 247.65 while Dempsey secured second with a 222.45 count. Dragosovac rounded out the top three spots by carding a score of 219.85.
QUOTABLE
"The divers made key improvements from the past weekend that proved to be beneficial" diving coach
Alexa Gonczi said. "Overall, better performances all-around."
"These two days are a tail of two swim meets," head coach
David Sheets said. "In the invitational format on Friday, I felt it was a total team effort in the pool and on the boards. In the dual meet format today, we had some really good performances in the pool but also had races that needed to be better. The divers had an outstanding two days and tons of credit goes to Alexa for helping us sneak by Richmond this morning."
Backus continued her strong performance with a runner-up finish in the 100-yard freestyle, clocking in at 52.32. In the 200-yard breaststroke, Burns (2:22.46) and Severini (2:24.93) secured second- and third-place finishes, respectively. Later in the meet, Howard earned a silver medal in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing just behind teammate Freel. The Dukes closed out the afternoon with the 400-yard freestyle relay, as Snow, Connors, Howard, and Backus combined for a time of 3:30.15 to capture another silver medal.
UP NEXT
Duquesne will be idle until November, when it returns to Towers Pool for its home debut against Saint Peter's on Saturday, Nov. 8, at 11:00 a.m. The diving team will also be in action that day, traveling to Clarion to compete in the Clarion Fall Invite at 12:00 p.m.