The Navy men’s swimming and diving team capped its regular season by recording victories over Columbia and Penn State Friday afternoon at Lejeune Hall. The Mids (12-1) won 12 events on the afternoon to post a 196-92 victory over Columbia and a 161-131 win over Penn State.
The last time Navy, ranked 24th nationally, won as many as 12 meets in a year was when the Mids posted an identical 12-1 record during the 2011-12 season. Navy’s lone loss this year was a 173-127 defeat at North Carolina. The Tar Heels are ranked 19th nationally in the most recent poll.
In the remaining meet contested on the day, the Nittany Lions (2-6) notched a 154-123 win over a Lions (3-6) team that was severely depleted due to illnesses running through the squad.
“A lot of credit to Columbia,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “Everybody’s been in the same situation they currently are in. We give them a lot of credit and respect for coming down and fighting through all of the illnesses they are dealing with.
“We were where we hoped to be at today,” said Roberts on the times posted by his Mids. “We had some really good swims. Some guys were not completely satisfied with their performances, but I think the efforts were there and, overall, the times were much better today than they were Wednesday (when Navy faced Johns Hopkins and Towson).”
The Mids won the opening event of the meet, the 200 medley relay, before Penn State won both the 1000 free (Matthew Stasiunas, 9:17.99) and the 200 free (J.P. Cervone, 1:39.11) events. Navy would go on to win each of the remaining 10 swimming events contested between the teams.
David Carlson (Sr., Brielle, N.J.) started the run when he posted a time of 49.84 to win the 100 backstroke by just under two-tenths of a second. Marlin Brutkiewicz (Jr., Mobile, Ala.) followed by winning the 100 breast –– by two seconds –– in a time of 55.20, then Jonathan Debaugh (Sr., Conroe, Texas) recorded a time of 1:48.03 to win the 200 fly by three seconds. The opening half of the meet came to an end after Michael Bundas (Jr., Saline, Mich.) won the 50 free in a time of 20.63.
Joseph Jaime (So., San Antonio, Texas) extended Navy’s spurt after the break when he posted a time of 45.67 to win the 100 free. Carlson then notched his second first-place finish of the day when his time of 1:49.12 gave him the victory in the 200 backstroke by 2.84 seconds, with Brutkiewicz matching Carlson’s victory total by winning the 200 breaststroke in a clocking of 2:01.87.
The race of the meet followed as Navy’s Tom Duvall (Sr., Durham, N.H.) edged Stasiunas in the 500 freestyle. Stasiunas held leads of 1.29 seconds after 350 yards, 1.16 seconds after 400 yards and 1.04 seconds –– just under a full body length –– after 450 yards, but Duvall found another gear heading into the final 50 yards and cruised through the last lap in a time of 24.29 to better the 25.42 recorded by Stasiunas to win the race.
Duvall posted an overall time of 4:30.25 to top the 4:30.34 recorded by Stasiunas.
“Of all the athletes I have had the privilege to work with here at Navy,” said Roberts, “Tom has an incredible sense of positioning during a race and how to shift gears and manage his energy during a race that others have not had. At this point all we can do is sit back and enjoy watching him finish out his career on a high note. That (the 500 free) was just a lot of experience and hard work coming together.”
Debaugh would go on to join Carlson and Brutkiewicz as double event winners when he touched the wall first in the 100 fly with his time of 49.26, then Brayden Lauffer (Fr., Apex, N.C.) posted a time of 1:52.46 to win the 200 individual medley event.
Navy would close the competition by winning the 400 freestyle relay.
“This is the last dual meet of the semester, the last meet going into the championships,” said Roberts, “and the guys knew this would be important meet for us both internally and externally. I think we are in a good spot going into the next couple of weeks.”
The Mids will begin the championship portion of their season Feb. 17-20 when they play host to the Patriot League Championship in Lejeune Hall.
