Virginia Tech Sweeps Duke in Saturday ACC Matchup
The Duke Blue Devils headed north Saturday to face off with ACC rival Virginia Tech, and the home team held serve across the board. The women’s meet was fairly close throughout before the Hokies won 134-109, but the men’s was a blowout, with Virginia Tech winning every event (albeit with exhibition swims late) and finishing ahead by a 147-87 margin.
Virginia Tech’s Bengisu Caymaz led a Hokie 1-2-3-4 sweep in the 1000 free in 9:49.47. Carmen Weiler Sastre was next up in the 200 free, touching in 1:45.43 for the win, and Emily Claesson came out on top of the 50 free in 22.59. Athena Meneses Kovacs came in first in the 100 fly (53.30), and the 500 free went to Kate Anderson (4:50.62). The Hokies’ Weiler Sastre, Claesson, Fanni Gyurinovic and Eliza Tart clocked 1:29.86 to defeat the Blue Devils in the 200 free relay.
The Blue Devils opened with a dominant performance in the 200 medley relay from Tierney Lenahan, Kaelyn Gridley, Heather White and Tatum Wall, who combined to record a time of 1:37.48. Duke’s first individual win came from Martina Peroni in the 200 IM (2:00.98), and Wall followed with a top time of 48.45 in the 100 freestyle. Wall had previously sealed Duke’s medley relay win with a 21.48 anchor split. Ali Pfaff was the winner of the 100 backstroke in 51.89. Gridley dominated the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.46. In diving, Duke’s Keira Lu won 1-meter (278.63) and 3-meter (328.88).
Virginia Tech’s domination on the men’s side began with a sweep of the top-three spots in the 200 medley relay. The “A” and “B” teams actually tied atop the race, with both touching in 1:26.10. One group consisted of of Landon Gentry, Eli Martin, Will Hayon and Diego Aranda, and the other had Levente Balogh, Ethan Maloney, Tanish George Mathew and Javier Nunez.
Brendan Whitfield had a sensational meet with a pair of individual freestyle wins. He put up a time of 1:33.79 in the 200 free before going 41.79 to dominate the 100 free by almost two-and-a-half seconds. He later led off the Hokies’ 200 free relay in 19.10, combining with Gentry, Aranda and Hayon to take the win in 1:18.70.
In the 1000 free, Lee Naber got the win in 9:09.42, and Nunez led the way in the 50 free (19.87). Martin touched first in the 200 IM (1:47.77). while Hayon edged the field in the 100 fly (47.02), and the Hokies continued to wrack up wins with Connor Johnson in the 100 back (47.81), Jakub Poliacik in the 500 free (4:22.94) and Martin in the 100 breast (53.31). In diving, Rocky Ramsland won 1-meter (328.50), and Nathan Cox finished first on 3-meter (366.98).
