Virginia Tech hosted William & Mary, West Virginia and ACC rival Duke Friday and Saturday at Christiansburg Aquatic Center. The hosting Hokie men came out on top in dual meets with all three teams, and it was the Duke women who swept their opponents.<\/p>\n
Virginia Tech’s women opened the meet with a win in the 200 free relay.\u00a0Caroline Buscaglia<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>Adriana\u00a0<\/strong>Grabski<\/strong>,\u00a0Danielle Griggs <\/strong>and Auriane de Premilhat <\/strong>touched in\u00a01:33.40, just touching out the Duke foursome of\u00a0Maddie Hess<\/strong>,\u00a0Alyssa Marsh<\/strong>,\u00a0Jessie Sutherland<\/strong> and\u00a0Maddie Rusch<\/strong>, who came in at\u00a01:33.58.<\/p>\n The men of Virginia Tech then won the 200 free relay.\u00a0Ian Ho<\/strong>,\u00a0Brandon Fiala <\/strong>and\u00a0Harrison Pierce<\/strong> established a lead, and\u00a0Brent Benedict<\/strong>\u00a0held off William & Mary’s Joseph Eiden<\/strong>, who anchored in 20.15. VT touched in\u00a01:22.10, and W&M was second in 1:22.54.<\/p>\n Duke got its first win of the meet in the women’s 200 IM as\u00a0Leah Goldman<\/strong>\u00a0won in 2:01.39, defeating the Hokie duo of\u00a0Klaudia Nazieblo<\/strong> (2:01.63) and\u00a0Fiona Donnelly\u00a0<\/strong>(2:01.97).\u00a0Robert Owen<\/strong>, the ACC swimmer of the week two weeks ago, then took down last year’s conference champion in the men’s \u00a0200 IM, fellow Hokie senior\u00a0Brandon Fiala<\/strong>, 1:49.06 to 1:49.15.<\/p>\n Virginia Tech’s\u00a0Jessica Hespeler<\/strong>\u00a0dominated the women’s 500 free in 4:48.69, well ahead of Duke’s\u00a0Verity Abel<\/strong> (4:53.28). The Hokie men then swept the men’s\u00a0500 free with freshman\u00a0Hassler Carroll<\/strong>\u00a0leading the way in 4:30.63.\u00a0Norbert Szabo<\/strong> (4:31.80) and\u00a0Nate Pawlowicz<\/strong> (4:33.42) finished second and third, respectively.<\/p>\n The Blue Devils scored huge points in the 100 breast.\u00a0Ashleigh Shanley<\/strong>\u00a0took first in the women’s race in 1:03.05, and then seniors\u00a0Peter Kropp<\/strong> (54.63),\u00a0Dylan Payne<\/strong> (54.72) and\u00a0Michael Seaberg<\/strong> (54.83) finished 1-2-3 in the men’s event, with ACC champion Fiala settling for fourth (55.24).<\/p>\n Donnelly cruised to a win in\u00a0the 200 back. Hess provided an early challenge, but Donnelly ended up pulling away and touching in 1:58.99, ahead of Duke’s\u00a0Mickayla Hinkle<\/strong> (2:01.33) and Hess (2:01.34). Owen then posted a dominant 1:46.80 in the men’s 200 back.<\/p>\n Duke again took the top two spots in the women’s 100 free with Rusch (50.36) and Marsh (50.73). Hespeler ended up third in 50.89. On the men’s side, William & Mary got its first win of the meet as Eiden touched in 45.16. Ho and Duke’s\u00a0Yusuke Le<\/strong>gard<\/strong>\u00a0tied for second in 45.73.<\/p>\n Nazieblo won the 200 fly in 1:57.61, with\u00a0Duke’s\u00a0Isa Paez<\/strong>\u00a0second in 1:59.43. The Hokies scored big points in the 200 fly with Szabo touching out\u00a0Christopher Wang<\/strong> 1:50.85 to 1:50.86.<\/p>\n In Friday’s diving events, VT’s\u00a0Ashlynn Peters <\/strong>won the women’s three-meter with a score of\u00a0314.45, and Duke’s\u00a0Nathaniel Hernandez<\/strong>\u00a0wrapped up the men’s one-meter with 333.15 points.<\/p>\n Virginia Tech’s women took the top spot in the women’s 400 medley relay in 3:42.49 with Donnelly,\u00a0Kelly Henry<\/strong>,\u00a0Nazieblo and Hespeler. Duke’s\u00a0\u00a0Max St George<\/strong>, Kropp, Payne, Legard won the men’s 400 medley relay in 3:16.74 to wrap up the meet for Friday evening.<\/p>\n Saturday morning began with a pair of Duke victories in the 200 medley relays.\u00a0Hess, Shanley, Marsh and Rusch won the women’s in 1:40.70, and\u00a0St George, Kropp,\u00a0Michael Miller <\/strong>and\u00a0Legard captured the men’s in 1:29.05.<\/p>\n Hespeler again cruised in a distance freestyle race as she won the 1650 in 16:42.66, with Abel again finishing second. Szabo won the men’s mile for the Hokies in 15:47.26.<\/p>\n The Blue Devils again swept the top three spots in the women’s 50 free. Rusch won in an impressive 22.87, ahead of Marsh (22.30) and Goldman (23.45). Ho then won the men’s 50 free for the third straight week, as his 20.26 defeated Legard, who finished second in 20.45.<\/p>\n Virginia Tech’s Nazieblo (54.63) and Donnelly (55.20) took the top two spots in the women’s 100 back before St George touched out Owen by one one-hundredth, 48.91 to 48.92, in the men’s 100 back in one of the best races of the weekend.<\/p>\n 200 breast victories went to Shanley (2:!7.61) on the women’s side and Fiala (2:00.13) on the men’s. Hespeler won her third race of the weekend with a 1:49.11 in the women’s 200 free. Szabo (1:39.11) and Carroll (1:40.61) took the top two spots in the men’s 200 free.<\/p>\n The Duke women continued their sprint dominance in the women’s 100 fly, where they again picked up the top three spots. Rusch won in 54.21, while Marsh finished second (54.57) and Paez third (54.89). Wang then got a tight victory over Payne in the 100 fly, 49.69 to 49.70.<\/p>\n