The depth of the Navy swimming and diving teams helped the Mids post a pair of victories over UMBC Wednesday evening at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. The Navy women’s squad won nine events on its way to tallying a 154.5-143.5 win over the Retrievers, while the men’s team swept each of the 14 swimming events to record a 151-138 victory.
Both Navy teams have now posted 2-1 records this season, while each UMBC squad now has compiled a 1-1 record on the year.
“I thought we swam pretty well for a mid-week meet,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “We’ve seen a lot of improvements over the last few weeks and are racing better. Hats off to UMBC; they swam very well today and they will have a great season. They really put some pressure on us, but it was nice to see us rise to that challenge.”
“I think the team showed up today and really raced strong,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “That’s what we talked about before the meet: having a great meet, racing to the best of our abilities and not worrying about anything but doing the little things to race right. From that perspective, they did an excellent job.”
Navy took its first lead in the women’s meet after the completion of the 100m backstroke, the fourth event of the contest. Kaitlyn O’Reilly (Fr., Farmington, Minn.) won the event by one second with a time of 1:04.91, with teammates Biz Gaerff (Fr., Canton, Ohio) placing fourth and Zoe Macfarlane (Jr., Pensacola, Fla.) finishing in fifth place. The result of that race gave Navy a 38-36 advantage, but UMBC scored three swimmers –– including the first and second-place finishers – in the ensuing race, the 100m breaststroke, to take a 51-42 advantage.
Back came Navy in event six, the 200m butterfly, as Charlotte Meyer (So., Bethesda, Md.), Rachael Dudley (Jr., Hoschton, Ga.) and Jenny Smith (Fr., Columbus, Ohio) placed first, second and fourth, respectively, to vault the Mids back in front by the count of 57-55. Meyer posted a time of 2:20.69, Dudley touch the wall in 2:21.47 and Smith recorded a clocking of 2:24.23. Earlier in the meet, Smith had won the 800m freestyle with her time of 9:11.21.
That started a string of three-straight wins for the Mids to close out the first half of the meet. Brianna Bilunas (Sr., Omaha, Neb.) recorded the first individual event victory of her career with a time of 26.89 in the 50m free, then Julie Jesse (Jr., Edwardsburg, Mich.) led a 1-3-4 finish for the Mids on the one-meter springboard with her score of 260.70. That gave the Mids an 82-68 lead at the first intermission.
UMBC gained one point on Navy in the 100m freestyle, but the Mids finished, first, second and third in the 200m backstroke to give them a 107-81 cushion. Emily Ranzau (Fr., Johns Creek, Ga.) won the event in a time of 2:19.33, Meyer placed second with her posting of 2:22.48 and Macfarlane finished in third place with a time of 2:23.86.
“Coming off the break, UMBC had a heck of a swim in the 100 free to beat us, and that gave us a little challenge, but to come back and go one, two, three in the 200 back really gave us the boost we needed,” said Morrison.
The Retrievers again could only shave one point off of their deficit in the 400m free, then Hanna Gillcrist (So., Burlington, Ky.) won (1:04.10) and Dudley finished second (1:04.52) in the 100m butterfly to boost Navy’s advantage out to 135.5-109.5. Jesse won the three-meter springboard by just over two points with her score of 244.88 to help Navy to a 147.5-116.5 lead with just two events remaining.
“Depth was huge today,” said Morrison. “We had a lot of second, thirds and fourths, which are all one-point swings. That was big for us. One of things we pride ourselves on is that everyone is a team scorer. If you don’t get the win, you want to get second. Every place counts.”
Last year’s meet between the two men’s programs saw the Navy win nine of the 16 events as part of its 154.4-145.5 victory over UMBC. This year the Mids recorded their ninth victory in the 10th event of the meet.
After starting the meet by winning the 200m medley relay, Alex Nickell (Jr., Loveland, Colo.) posted a time of 8:22.21 to win the 800m free by seven seconds. Tom Duvall (Jr., Durham, N.H.) followed by with a time of 1:51.76 to win the 200m free by 17-hundredths of a second, then David Carlson (Jr., Briele, N.J.) recorded a time of 57.56 to win the 100m back by nearly three-quarters of a second.
Navy’s held a 51-23 lead through four events, and that margin only grew with first and second-place showings in each of the next two events. Marlin Brutkiewicz (So., Mobile, Ala.) followed by recording a time of 1:03.33 to win the 100m breast by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Mathias Porter (Fr., Signal Mountain, Tenn.), then Jonathan Debaugh (Jr., Conroe, Texas) won the 200m fly with his clocking of 2:03.09. Fellow Mid Young Tae Seo (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif.) would claim the No. 2 spot in the race with his time of 2:04.49. Those two events gave the Mids a 78-34 lead, which became 92-39 with Dain Bomberger’s (Sr., Lititz, Pa.) win (23.44) in the 50m free to close out the swimming events in the first half of the meet.
“Getting a good start was the key today,” said Roberts. “We talked about the medley relay and so often you think about winning that and a race or two right after it and just taking control. That was the difference. That medley relay stepped up, raced really well and had a solid time, and that led into the first couple of individuals races.”
The second half of the meet saw Duvall win both the 100m free (51.45) and 400m free (4:00.64), Carlson win the 200m backstroke (2:06.41), Brutkiewicz earn the victory in the 200m breast (2:19.08), Debaugh finish first in the 100m fly (55.73) and Seo touch the wall first in the 200m individual medley (2:05.43).
“I don’t know the percentage, but a lot of guys recorded season to date best times today,” said Roberts. “If they didn’t get that, then we are looking at how they split their races and looked in the water. We feel good about where we are at for this point in the schedule. We have some ground to gain with the meets coming up, but we have done a good job getting to this point.”
Navy’s men’s team will compete Oct. 24 at Virginia, while the Navy women’s team is off until it travels to Lewisburg, Pa., to face American, Bucknell and Lafayette.
The UMBC swimming and diving teams fell to Navy on Wednesday. The men fell 151-138, while the women lost 154.5-143.5. Both the men and the women fall to 1-1 on the year.
On the men's side, UMBC took one of the relays, winning the 400 free relay. The quartet of Lauri Kaei, Trevor Doll, Jonas Gutzat, and Gregor Sporlein won with a time of 3:28.32.
Andrew Schrantz and Nikola Trajkovic each picked up individual wins for the Retrievers. Schrantz was a winner in the 100 fly with a time of 58.87. Trajkovic won the 200 IM in 2:05.90.
On the boards, both Ryan Green and Pak Lam Wong went one-two in the 1 and 3 meter dives. Green won the 1 meter with a score of 300.83 and the 3 meter with a tally of 304.35. Wong scored a 273.45 on the 1 meter and a 274.65 on the 3 meter.
The women swept both relays on the day. Lauren Day, Amanda Day, Emily Escobedo and Kristie Langford won the 200 medley relay in 1:59.80. Catherine Frediani, Allison Atkinson, Allie Caulfield and Langford won the 400 free relay with a time of 3:58.90.
Emily Escobedo paced the Retrievers with three individual wins. Emily was a winner in the 100 breast (1:11.73) and the 200 breast (2:33.78), as well as the 200 IM (2:21.78). Allie Caulfield was a dual winner, taking the 100 free (58.56) and the 200 free (2:06.56).
Brenda Rhodes took home gold in the 400 free. Rhodes touched the wall at 4:28.22 for UMBC.
The Retrievers are back in the pool this weekend, when they host the CCSA North Invite at the UMBC Aquatic Complex. Competition begins at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday and 10:00 a.m. on Sunday.
