The Navy swimming and diving teams combined to win a pair of meets over UMBC Friday evening at the UMBC Aquatic Center in Baltimore. Navy’s men’s team posted a 158-134 win over UMBC, while the Mids won the women’s meet over the Retrievers by the count of 152-148.
Each Navy squad is now 4-0 this season, UMBC’s women’s team –– winners of the 2015 America East Conference crown –– has a 1-1 record and its men’s team –– winners of the 2015 Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association title –– is 0-2.
“Our overall racing and effort were really strong,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “I was happy with the way we came into the venue, stepped up and put forth a full effort from beginning to end.”
“It was a hard-fought meet,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “It was a tough environment to swim in and UMBC was really ready to swim fast against us. We are really pleased with being able to come out of here with the win.”
For the second time in seven days, the Navy women’s squad won its meet on the final event of the contest. Last Saturday, the Mids recorded a 1-3 finish in the 400 freestyle relay to edge East Carolina, 150.5-149.5. Today, the Mids broke the pool record to win while also placing third in the 400 free relay to notch the win against the Retrievers.
UMBC won each of the first five events of the women’s meet to jump out to a 65-28 lead. Navy climbed back into the contest as Hanna Gillcrist (Jr., Burlington, Ky.) won the 200 fly (2:07.05), Annabel Tomes (So., San Diego, Calif.) won the 50 free (24.15), Julie Jesse (Sr., Edwardsburg, Mich.) took first in one of the diving events (258.60 on the one meter) and Tomes won the 100 free (52.37). After Navy’s rally, UMBC posted victories in the ensuing three events to separate a little bit again.
Gillcrist posted another win in the 100 fly (57.71) before Jesse recorded a win in the other diving event (240.60 on the three meter). Navy’s 400 free relay team of Kenzie Margroum (Jr., Fort Thomas, Ky.), Gillcrist, Tomes and Maddi Thompson (Sr., Jersey Shore, Pa.) posted a time of 3:29.20 to win the event by just under two seconds, with the Mids –– Olivia Morrell (Jr., Albuquerque, N.M.), Ally Warnimont (Fr. Winston-Salem, N.C.), Molly Kuenstler (So., Villa Park, Ill.), Casey Lawson (Fr., Spring Lake Heights, N.J.) –– also placing third in the race three seconds in back of UMBC’s second-place team and four seconds in front of the home team’s fourth-place squad.
“It was a challenging first half of the meet,” said Morrison, “but we are really pleased we could tough this one out and perform as a team over the last half of the meet to get the win.”
Navy’s men’s team recorded 13 victories on the day to defeat UMBC. In addition to both relay teams winning, seven different Mids won an individual event during the meet.
Earning a pair of wins were Alex Nickell (Sr., Loveland, Colo.), the 500 (4:38.21) and 1000 (9:32.93) free events; Marlin Brutkiewicz (Jr., Mobile, Ala.), the 100 (56.58) and 200 (2:04.76) breaststroke races; Jonathan Debaugh (Sr., Conroe, Texas), the 100 (50.99) and 200 (1:49.88) butterfly events; and Nate Belch (So., Tucson, Ariz.) on both the one (303.52) and three (265.05)-meter springboard events. Additionally, Joseph Jaime (So., San Antonio, Texas) won the 100 free (46.95), David Carlson (Sr., Brielle, N.J.) won the 100 back (51.40) and Young Tae Seo (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) won the 200 individual medley (1:54.55).
“Jon raced well,” said Roberts, “Marlin looked solid, Alex did well in the distance events and our divers did a good job. Our depth was strong today.”
Navy’s women’s team will be off from competition until the Mids play host to American, Bucknell and Lafayette on Nov. 7, while the Navy men will play host to Princeton on Oct. 24.
