Five Records Fall as Navy Swimming and Diving Teams Sweep League Foes

The Navy swimming and diving programs combined to set five school metric records and win 29 of 32 events to defeat their respective counterparts from American, Bucknell and Lafayette, Saturday afternoon at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.

The women’s meet saw Navy post wins over American by a score of 179-94, Bucknell by a tally of 161-128 and Lafayette by a count of 188-101.  In the men’s competition, the Mids defeated the Eagles by a score of 173-104, the Bison by a score of 156-122 and the Leopards by a count of 174-106.

Both Navy programs are now 7-0 this season.

“It was a good meet for us,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison.  “Our seniors really rose to the challenge today.  We needed them to come out swinging right from the start of the meet and they did just that.  We had a number of great individual performances on the day.  I was also excited to see us maintain our strong effort throughout the very long meet.”

“The guys raced and competed well as a team this afternoon,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts.  “We were looking for overall improvement today from the last few meets.  I felt we were more consistent with the way we raced and that we were decent with our starts and turns today.”

The Navy women’s team set four school records on the day, with Tara Chapmon (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) having a hand in three of them.  She opened the meet by combining with teammates Mallory Dietrich (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.), Toni Paruso (Fr., Savannah, Ga.) and Thuy-Mi Dinh (Sr., Anaheim, Calif.) to post a winning and school-record time of 1:57.14 in the 200 medley relay.  The foursome broke the old mark of 1:58.22 set four years ago.  After Chapmon then won the first individual event of the meet, the 800 freestyle by seven seconds (9:06.59), she immediately returned to the blocks for the next event, the 200 freestyle.  Chapmon completed the hat trick of winning her third event in as many efforts with a time of 2:01.23.  That time not only gave her the win by 2.6 seconds, it also broke the school record of 2:02.79 set by Allison Ranzau (Jr., Alpharetta, Ga.) two years ago.

Later in the meet, Chapmon would win the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:14.08, a clocking that easily won her the event by six seconds and broke the school record of 2:17.26 set by Jennie Spencer four years ago.

Paruso herself had a good day for the Mids.  She would win the 200 butterfly by six seconds (2:19.54) before breaking the school record in winning the 100 fly.  Her time of 1:02.65 gave her the victory by over three seconds and bettered the school standard of 1:02.77 set by Dietrich three seasons ago.

Despite seeing their respective records fall, both Dietrich and Ranzau also put together solid performances on the day for the Mids.  Dietrich won the 100 breaststroke by 1.5 seconds (1:11.47) and the 200 breast by nearly four seconds (2:36.78), while Ranzau posted a nearly seven-second victory in the 400 freestyle (4:24.45).

 

Completing the list of multiple-event winners on the day for Navy was Dinh, who swept the two sprint freestyle races.  She won the 50 free by just under one second (25.77) before winning the 100 free by 1.6 seconds (57.21).

 

Also picking up a victory during the meet was diver Jordan Nicholl (Fr., Acworth, Ga.), who won the one-meter event by 21 points with a score of 232.95.

 

The Mids closed out the day by seeing Ranzau, Daphne Williams (Fr., Lebanon, Ill.), Katie Davidson (Fr., Geneva, Fla.) and Dinh win the 400 freestyle relay by six seconds (3:55.02).

 

Not to be outdone on the day was the performance by the Navy men’s team, which won all 16 events against the trio of foes.  Making that number even more impressive is the fact that 11 different Mids tallied an individual event victory.

 

One of the trio of Mids to post multiple wins during the meet was Adam Meyer (Sr., Bethesda, Md.).  His first win was in the 200 fly when he recorded a time of 2:01.94 to win the event by a little more than one second.  He then broke his own school record of 4:24.29 in winning the 400 individual medley –– by 16 seconds –– with a time of 4:23.23.

 

Andrew Hetzner (Sr., Riverside, Calif.) was lone other swimmer to pick up a pair of individual event wins during the meet for Navy.  Hetzner won the 100 backstroke by 1.7 seconds (57.51) and the 200 backstroke by 2.5 seconds (2:05.27). 

 

In the diving competition, Ben Nicholas (So., Bothell, Wash.) swept the two boards by a combined 162 points.  He first posted a score of 279.30 to win the one-meter competition, then bettered the field by over 150 points in winning the three-meter event with a score of 437.40.

 

Winning the first individual event of the day for Navy was Erik Hunter (Jr., Placerville, Calif.), who won the 800 free by eight seconds (8:18.69).  He led a 1-2-3-4 finish for the Mids in the event.  Next to pick up a win for the Mids was William Norton (So., Tyler, Texas), who won the 200 free by nearly one second (1:54.35).  He was soon followed by Andrew Utama (Sr., Walnut Creek, Calif.), who won the 100 breast by an almost equal margin (1:05.38). 

 

Aaron Aiken (Jr., Ocala, Fla.) and Alex Buck (Jr., Lisle, Ill.) then traded first and second-place finishes in the 50 and 100 freestyle events.  Aiken edged Buck by six-hundredths of a second (23.55) in the 50 free, then Buck returned the favor by topping Aiken by four-tenths of a second to win the 100 free (52.10).

 

Joseph Stark (Fr., Erie, Pa.) led a 1-2-3 finish for Navy in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:25.82 before the Mids placed first, second, third and fourth in the 400 freestyle.  Picking up the win for Navy in the event was Sam Martinette (Jr., Richmond, Va.) with a time of 4:04.92.  Mark Meyer (So., Bethesda, Md.) then won the 100 fly for the Mids with a time of 58.34.

 

Additionally, the Mids won both of the relay events contested during the meet.  The Mids actually finished first and second in the opening 200 medley relay event.  Winning the race in a time of 1:45.64 was the foursome of Hetzner, Utama, Adam Meyer and Aiken.  They narrowly edged Mark Meyer, Andrew Feeney (Fr., Norcross, Ga.), Steve Dukleth (So., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and Buck for the win by nine-hundredths of a second.

 

Navy closed the meet by having its 400 freestyle relay team of Aiken, Sean Bagent (Fr., Norcross, Ga.), John Tortorich (So., Metarie, La.) and Buck record a time of 3:31.80 to win the event by 1.5 seconds.

 

The Navy women’s program will next be in competition Nov. 19-21 when the Mids take part in the Terrapin Invite, while the men’s team will face Dartmouth and Brown Nov. 21 in Hanover, N.H.