Women’s swimming falls to Liberty

The final score of the Duquesne women's swim team's meet against Liberty last Saturday was as unsettled as the splashing water behind the feet of the final relay's anchor.

Unfortunately for the Dukes, the final result was a 143-119 loss in a back and forth meet in their home pool. 

The Dukes led 66-65 after seven events but couldn't maintain the lead after 10 events. Exiting the 200-yard breaststroke they trailed 95-93 and before the final event were down 130-115. 

"There were a couple of events that we probably could have won today that we didn't and that's where [Liberty] started to get the edge on us," coach Dave Sheets said. 

With only the 200 freestyle relay remaining, Liberty needed just a third place finish to lock up the meet, but won the race easier than they claimed the meet, never trailing from the start.

Four Dukes finished first in their individual events including Miriam McGeath who picked up two wins in the 200 breaststroke (2:31.24) and the 400 IM (4:35.50). Meghan Smith, Hillary Hocson and Line Lovberg won the 200 freestyle (1:57.09), 100 breaststroke (1:09.88) and 200 butterfly (2:07.81) respectively. 

McGeath, Hocson, Smith and Lovberg touched second in the 1,000 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 500 freestyle and 100 butterfly respectively.

The Dukes knew the challenges they would face going into the meet.

"We kind of knew that it was going to be [an] iffy [meet] because both of our teams are very much alike," Smith said. "They just have more sprinters. We have more strokers, so we knew coming into the meet that it was going to be kind of close. We just had to see who [would] have a better day."

Sheets penned his lineup knowing the teams were very even.

"I knew that they were strong in events that we weren't and we were stronger in events that they weren't," Sheets said. "So I knew the meet was going to go back and forth and I knew that sooner or later there was going to be a breaking point where one team would start to pull away, and that's kind of what Liberty did today."

Last week the Dukes returned from Pompano Beach, Fla., where they had winter training. They are now using the rest of the season as preparation for the A-10 meet which runs from Feb. 22-25 in Buffalo.

"The one thing that we try to do with our meets now is we try to focus on getting ready for [the] A-10 [championship]," Sheets said. "Every time they stepped up to the block [today] I wanted them to think about how they would swim their races at A-10s, because that's kind of what the second half of the season is about now. We have to prepare every time we have an opportunity to race, I want them to race the way they're going to race at A-10s."

Senior Morgan Claycomb preprepared for her events with the season-ending championships in mind.

"Dave told us to swim our races how we plan to swim them at A-10s," Claycomb said. "It's not about trying to keep up with the person next to you, because in a 200 back[stroke], I can't go out and sprint, I need to be able to bring it back. So it was about swimming smart rather than just trying to win."

The swim team will have its senior day this Saturday against Mt. Saint Mary College where they will honor five seniors prior to the meet. Claycomb, Erin Cawley, Katy Hare, Hannah Kondrotas and Kristi Magee will be commemorated for their four years on the team.