Harvard Men Defeat Navy 188-112

The Harvard men’s swimming and diving team remained undefeated as the Crimson handed Navy its first loss of the season with a 188-112 win Saturday afternoon at Blodgett Pool. For the second year in a row, Harvard (5-0) handed the Midshipmen (12-1) their first loss of the season by winning 11 of the 16 events.
 
Harvard swept the 100 and 200 backstroke, taking the top three finishes in the two races. Sophomore Jordan Diekema won both, earning the top spot in the 100 with a time of 50.67 and touching the wall first in the 200 in 1:52.01. Sophomore Derick Chui and freshman Ian Mirisola finished second and third in both events, as Mirisola just edged out Chui in the 100, 52.31 to Chui’s 52.33. Chui then came in second in the 200 with a time of 1:53.17, while Mirisola touched the wall in 1:54.09.

Junior Alex Meyer was one of the Crimson’s two other multi-event winners, taking the top spot in the 500 and 1650 freestyles. Meyer won the 500 in 4:31.99 and the 1650 in 15:40.46. Two Harvard swimmers also captured third in both events, with sophomore Blake Lewkowitz finishing in 16:03.56 in the 1650 and junior Mason Brunnick capturing third in 4:40.69 in the 500.

Sophomore Zac Ranta won both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events, qualifying for the NCAA ‘A’ Division Championships along the way. Ranta won the 1-meter with a score of 296.47, and later easily won the 3-meter by finishing with a score of 349.51. Sophomore Henry Winslow finished in second in the 3-meter with a score of 267.83 after taking third earlier in the day in the 1-meter with 222.38 points.

Diekema also led the Crimson to first place finishes in the 200 medley relay and the 400 freestyle relay. Diekema, junior Simone Melillo, and seniors Bill Jones and David Guernsey captured the top spot in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:32.40. Diekema, Jones, Guernsey and sophomore Will Heyburn then won the last event of the day by finishing in a collective 3:07.24 in the 400 free relay.

Lynch, Melillo and Jones were the other first-place finishers on the afternoon for the Crimson. Lynch won the 200 free in 1:41.31, with sophomore Douwe Yntema taking second in 1:42.67. Melillo just edged out sophomore Justin Davidson in the 100 breast, with Melillo touching the wall in 58.76, just .03 seconds ahead of Davidson. Jones, meanwhile, won the 100 fly in 49.10, outdistancing freshman Nicholas Tan who took second with a time of 50.50.

Jones, and Tan went 2-3 in the 200 fly, with Jones touching in the wall in 1:49.86 and Tan finishing with a time of 1:51.31. Davidson and Melillo also swam 2-3 in the 200 breast, with Davidson coming in second in 2:07.41 and Melillo finished behind him in 2:08.83.

Yntema and freshman Niall Janney took second and third in the 400 IM with times of 4:02.36 and 4:05.65, respectively. The 50 and 100 freestyle events were the only two on the afternoon in which the Crimson did not take at least two of the three top spots. Heyburn was second in the 50 free with a time of 21.62, while Guernsey touched the wall in 47.32 to place second in the 100 free.

Harvard will look to keep its record unblemished Saturday, Jan. 10 as the Crimson will host Penn at Blodgett at noon.