The Navy swimming and diving teams combined to place first, second and third in 13 events and win 29 events in all to defeat American, Bucknell and Lafayette Saturday afternoon at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. In the women’s meet, Navy (6-0), defeated American (1-2), 203-82, Bucknell (2-3), 180-112 and Lafayette (0-5), 207-84, while Navy’s (6-0) men’s team topped the Eagles (0-3), 204-74, the Bison (2-3), 188-104 and the Leopards (1-4), 203-87.
“I was really proud of our team today and how they performed against three league teams,” said Navy women’s head coach John Morrison. “In the past, we have often had a hard time in meets held at the end of exam week, but we challenged our team to bring their energy and excitement today and they did just that. We have been keying in practices on a few things since our last meet three weeks ago, and because of that we ended up swimming faster today than we did earlier this season.”
“Both of the Navy teams were really ‘on’ today,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “It was fun watching all of the Mids perform and compete.
“I was very happy with the effort and energy of our team. They came out really focused and can feel good about their performances heading into another week of training.”
A total of 17 different Mids registered at least one individual event victory on the day, with seven Mids winning multiple events. Recording the most individual event wins was Lauren Barber (Fr., New Wilmington, Pa.), who won the 200 free (1:49.27), 100 free (51.37) and 100 IM (57.88) for Navy’s women’s team. Her teammates who won multiple events were Erin Jordan (Fr., Schnecksville, Pa.), who won the 1000 free (10:19.84) and 500 free (5:02.48), and Julie Jesse (Sr., Edwardsburg, Mich.), who claimed both the one (254.30) and three (257.45)-meter diving events.
Additional members of the Navy women’s team to win an individual event were Lauren Greenberg (Fr., Waxhaw, N.C.), 200 free (2:04.96); Hanna Gillcrist (Jr., Burlington, Ky.), 100 breast (1:04.25); Maddi Thompson (Sr., Jersey Shore, Pa.), 50 free (23.73); Kaitlyn O’Reilly (So., Farmington, Minn.), 200 breast (2:20.04); and Hannah Briant (Fr., Brielle, N.J.), 100 fly (56.87). Navy also won both the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay events.
“It was great to have a myriad of event winners,” said Morrison. “It is sometimes difficult when racing in two heats, but our heat one swimmers were putting up some very good times and that pushed our swimmers in the second heat to respond which they did.”
Four members of the Navy men’s team won a pair of the events during the course of the meet. David Carlson (Sr., Brielle, N.J.) won both the 100 (54.90) and 200 (1:48.90) backstroke events, Marlin Brutkiewicz (Jr., Mobile, Ala.) won the 100 (54.90) and 200 (2:01.21) breaststroke races, Noah Martin (Sr., San Tan Valley, Ariz.) won the 200 fly (1:54.20) and 500 free (4:32.40) events, and Joseph Jaime (So., San Antonio, Texas) took the 50 (20.96) and 100 (45.17) freestyle events.
Completing the list of winners for the Mids were Jonathan Debaugh (Sr., Conroe, Texas), 200 free (1:40.95); Ryan Bailey (Jr., Youngstown, Ohio), 100 fly (50.33); Hayes McCullagh (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.), 100 IM (51.94); Frank Love (Sr., Atlanta, Ga.), one-meter diving (308.74); and Joe Kaszubowski (Fr., Whitefish Bay, Wis.), three-meter diving (341.25).
“Marlin continues to excel in the breaststroke events,” said Roberts, “David was excellent in winning the backstroke races, and our divers did real well.”
The Navy men’s team will next compete Nov. 19-21 at North Carolina’s Nike Cup, while the Navy women will next be in action Nov. 20-22 at the Frank Elm Invite at Rutgers.
