The William and mary swimming programs close out the fall dual-meet schedule on Saturday, traveling down to Durham, N.C., to face the Duke Blue Devils at 11 a.m.  This will be the first meeting with Duke since 2005-06.  Just like at W&M home meets, diving events will not count towards the team scores.

Scouting the Tribe Men
W&M's men's team is off to its best season in 35 years with a perfect 5-0 start to the year.  Included in that total is a win over UNCW at last week's Pod Meet, the first over the Seahawks since 1998-99, and the Tribe's 5-0 mark is the best since the 1977-78 and 1978-79 squads each started 6-0 en route to a 7-3 and 7-2 finish, respectively.

Leading the way for the Tribe is senior Andrew Strait (Henrico, Va.), who was named CAA Swimmer of the Week after sweeping all six of his races against UNCW and Delaware last weekend.  For the season, he is 12-2 overall and leads W&M with 134.25 points.  Sophomore Billy Russell (Newport News, Va.) has 120 points overall, and a 10-2 record in the sprint freestyles, and classmate Will Manion (Haddonfield, N.J.) has also eclipsed 100 points already this year with an 8-2 record.

Scouting the Tribe Women
The W&M women's program is also off to a fast start at 4-2 overall, its best record since beginning 2009-10 at 5-1.  The Tribe went 2-1 last weekend at the Pod Meet, falling to conference power-house James Madison, but defeating both Delaware and UNCW in the two-day event.

At the front of the line for the Tribe women is junior Megan Howard (McLean, Va.), who has 150 points and a 13-2 record.  She hasn't finished worse than second in any race through the first six meets of the year.  Also swimming well is sophomore Jessie Ustjanauskas (West Hartford, Conn.), who has 12 podium finishes in 15 races (including four victories), and junior Liz Glenn (Greenwood Village, Colo.), who is second on the team with six wins and has finished third or better in all 11 of her races.  The Tribe freshman class has been especially strong this year, led by back-stroker Sophie Rittenhouse (London, England) and sprinter Jaimie Miller (Houston, Texas).  Rittenhouse has five wins and 11 top-three finishes in her 12 races, and already ranks top-10 all-time at W&M in both the 100 and 200 back.  Miller has just one win to her credit so far, but that's understandable swimming behind Howard, and has also finished third or better 11 out of 12 times in the pool.

Scouting the Blue Devils
Duke is 1-0 on the year on both sides of the pool, as both the men and the women swept UNCW in their only dual meet so far.  The Blue Devils also had both programs finish fifth at the season-opening state "championships," taking on every swim program in the state of North Carolina.  Leading the way for Duke on the men's side is senior Hunter Knight, who ranks top-30 in the nation in both breaststrokes, as well as women's senior Christine Wixted, top-30 in the 100 breast.  The Blue Devils will be hosting N.C. State and Miami (women only) on Friday afternoon before facing the Tribe on Saturday.

The Series
Since 1983, the Duke men hold a slim 5-4 advantage over W&M, winning the last meeting in October of 2005 by a score of 143-94.  The Tribe's last victory in the series was in February of 2002, as current W&M coach Matt Crispino '02 led his teammates to a 121.5-101.5 win on Senior Day.

On the women's side, the series goes back to the 1976 season, with the Blue Devils in front 10-5 all-time.  W&M's last win was in 2000, a 125-99 triumph in Williamsburg, while the last time these two teams met in 2005, Duke won 161-82.