The Navy swimming teams combined to win 21 events on their way to sweeping Johns Hopkins Wednesday evening at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. The Navy women’s team (7-3) posted a 143.5-113.5 victory over Johns Hopkins (6-2), while the Navy men’s squad (7-5) recorded a 141.5-109.5 win over the Blue Jays (5-4).
“This is the last weekend of competition before championships,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts, “so we asked the team to come out aggressive with how they compete in tonight’s meet. We don’t get many more opportunities to compete before the league championship, so tonight is a big night.”
“Overall, a very good last home dual for us,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “Across the board, we saw a lot of great racing for a Wednesday night. That was great to see. It was a very good meet for us. Hopkins had some outstanding athletes up there, and fortunately we were able to compete with them and come away with the win.”
Headlining Navy’s efforts on the day was Charlotte Meyer (So., Bethesda, Md.), who recorded victories in the 200 fly (2:05.14), 200 back (2:03.82) and 200 individual medley (2:04.74) events. Morgan Nassif (Jr., Laguna Hills, Calif.) and Rachael Dudley (Jr., Hoschton, Ga.) joined Meyer as multiple-event winners for the Mids. Nassif posted wins in the 1000 free (10:34.12) and 500 free (5:08.14) events, while Dudley won the 100 back (57.82) and 100 fly (57.09) races.
Completing the list of winners for the Navy women were Ellen Bradford (Jr., Knoxville, Tenn.), who won the 200 breaststroke (2:22.68), and the 400 free relay team (3:33.50) of Maddi Thompson (Jr., Jersey Shore, Pa.), Molly Kuenstler (Fr., Villa Park, Ill.), Kenzie Margroum (So., Fort Thomas, Ky.) and Brianna Bilunas (Sr., Omaha, Neb). Additionally, Navy’s 200 medley relay team of Biz Graeff (Fr., Canton, Ohio), Bradford, Margroum and Thompson tied Johns Hopkins for the victory in the event with an identical time of 1:47.10.
Whereas four members of the Navy women’s team won at least one individual event, 10 different swimmers for the Navy men’s team claimed the program’s 10 individual event victories.
Tom Duvall (Jr., Durham, N.H.) started things off for Navy with his victory in the 1000 free (9:20.03). Alex Nickell (Jr., Loveland, Ohio) followed by touching first in the 200 free (1:40.67), David Carlson (Jr., Brielle, N.J.) won the 100 back (50.79) and Mathias Porter (Fr., Signal Mountain, Tenn.) took first place in the 100 breaststroke (56.50). Wins by Billy Draves (Sr., Gilbertville, Pa.) in the 200 fly (1:53.20) and Michael Bundas (So., Saline, Mich.) in the 50 free (21.52) closed out the first half of the meet.
Joseph Jaime (Fr., San Antonio, Texas) continued the run of success for the Mids by winning the 100 free (46.92), Ethan King (So., Collierville, Tenn.) followed by claiming the 200 back (1:52.93), Marlin Brutkiewicz (So., Mobile, Ala.) won the 200 breast (2:01.22) and Hayes McCullagh (So., Charlotte, N.C.) took first place in the 100 fly (50.47).
Navy also won the 200 medley relay race as the foursome of Dennis Rusiewski (So., Rochester, Mich.), Brutkiewicz, Jonathan Debaugh (Jr., Conroe, Texas) and Dain Bomberger (Sr., Lititz, Pa.) recorded a winning time of 1:31.53.
The Navy teams will close out their respective regular seasons with meets this weekend. The men’s team will compete Friday at Columbia and the women’s squad will take part in the Bucknell Invitational Saturday. Both teams will then set their sights squarely on the Feb. 18-21 Patriot League Championship Meet at Bucknell.
“It is still too far out from the league championships (for a true evaluation of the team’s progress),” said Morrison, “ but we feel we are in a good position, as good as any other year. The team is training extremely hard and extremely well. They are swimming with confidence, which is good to see. We still have to work on a few things but in about two weeks we will see all of that effort start to show up.”
“We’re just trying to be consistent and improve a little, as well,” said Roberts if the team’s progress right now. “We definitely saw some time drops tonight. Not from everyone but overall we made some good steps toward how we want to be at the championship.
“Columbia has swam incredibly well of real late. If you look at their results from just a few weeks ago and what they are doing now, they are really on fire. If want to be competitive against them we need to have our full team be ‘on’ because Columbia is a real strong team.”
