Navy swept a pair of dual meets against East Carolina.
Navy Press Release
GREENVILLE, N.C. –– The Navy swimming and diving teams combined to win 22 of the 32 contested events to sweep East Carolina Sunday afternoon at Minges Natatorium in Greenville, N.C. The Navy women’s team (3-0) notched a 185-111 victory over the Pirates (0-1), while the Navy men (3-0) defeated East Carolina (0-1) by the count of 170-128.
The 2015 meet between the two women’s teams was not decided until the very last event of the day when the Mids placed first and third to record a 150.5-149.5 victory. Today, Navy won 10 events and placed second in the remaining six to initially build and then maintain an advantage over East Carolina.
“We’re real pleased with the performance of the entire team,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “We swam really well and attacked every race in a challenging environment for a visiting team against a really good team. It was a total team effort thanks to our depth.”
Pacing the efforts for the Navy women was Lauren Barber (So., New Wilmington, Pa.), who won a trio of individual events and swam the breaststroke leg on the victorious 200 medley relay team. Barber posted a time of 1:51.10 to win the 200 free by almost three seconds, touched the wall in a time of 2:19.38 to win the 200 breast by 1.3 seconds and tallied a four-tenths of a second victory in the 200 individual medley with her clocking of 2:04.87.
“Lauren was really good the entire day,” said Morrison.
Also winning multiple individual events on the day was Olivia Morrell (Sr., Albuquerque, N.M.), who won both sprint freestyle races. She recorded a time of 24.32 to win the 50 free by 13-hundredths of a second, then posted a time of 52.38 to win the 100 free by almost two-tenths of a second. Finishing in second place in both races was Navy team captain Kenzie Margroum (Sr., Fort Thomas, Ky.).
Additional event winners for the Mids were Ally Warnimont (So., Winston-Salem, N.C.) in the 100 back (58.08), Hanna Gillcrist (Sr., Burlington, Ky.) in the 100 breast (1:05.67) and Delaney Walz (Fr., Mays Landing, N.J.) in the 100 fly (57.19).
“Our sprinters had a good day,” said Morrison, “and our young, untested distance swimmers did really well to limit East Carolina’s strong group. They really helped to keep ECU at bay in what could have been two big events for them by placing second, third and fourth in both the 1000 and 500 freestyle races.”
Navy’s winning 200 medley relay team (1:47.14) consisted of Biz Graeff (Jr., Canton, Ohio), Barber, Hannah Briant (So., Brielle, N.J.) and Margroum, while its 400 free team (3:32.07) of Warnimont, Kelly Harrington (Fr., Boca Raton, Fla.), Morrell and Margroum also won its event.
Navy’s men’s team won five of the first six swimming events on its way to taking an early advantage over East Carolina.
“We were real pleased with the approach our guys had coming into this meet,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts.
The Mids initially won the 200 medley relay as James Wilson (Fr., Ephrata, Pa.), Marlin Brutkiewicz (Sr., Mobile, Ala.), team captain Ryan Bailey (Sr.,Boardman, Ohio) and Michael Bundas (Sr., Saline, Mich.) combined for a time of 1:32.64 to win by one-half of a second. The Pirates won the next event, the 1000 free, but Navy would win each of the next four.
Joseph Jaime (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) and Ethan Whitaker (Jr., Chesterton, Ind.) placed first (1:42.08) and second (1:42.68), respectively, in the 200 free to start the run. Wilson followed by winning the 100 back by two-tenths of a second with his clocking of 51.03. Brutkiewicz made it three wins in a row as he posted a time of 57.04 to win the 100 breast by 19-hundredths of a second, then Nick Pfanstiel (So., Fishers, Ind.) and William Rittenhouse (Jr., London, England) placed first (1:54.57) and second (1:54.75), respectively, in the 200 fly.
The teams would trade victories in each of the next six events, with Navy’s wins coming from Jaime in the 100 free (46.81) by four-hundredths of a second, Brutkiewicz in the 200 breast (2:03.89) by almost one second and Bailey in the 100 fly (51.05) by 18-hundredths of a second over teammate Jack Eudy (So., Charlotte, N.C.).
Michael Velazquez (So., Henderson, Nev.) won the final individual event of the meet, the 200 individual medley, by almost one second with his time of 1:55.21, while diver Bradley Buchter (Fr., Hickory, N.C.) claimed both the one-meter (318.45) and three-meter (285.67) boards by a combined 87.30 points.
Navy closed the meet by placing first in the 400 freestyle relay. The foursome of Vince Everman (So., Philadelphia, Pa.), Zach Piedt (So., Fort Mill, S.C.), Bundas and Jaime posted a time of 3:07.45 to win the event by six-tenths of a second.
“Our times were not exactly where we had hoped they would be,” said Roberts, “but in terms of racing and just competing, this was a really productive meet for us. It is always good to get together with another conference champion (ECU has won the last two American Athletic Conference titles) and compete in a dual meet. ECU has a real quality lineup and we feel good with coming away from here with a win after some good racing.”
Both Navy teams will be back in action Nov. 5 when the Mids play host to American, Bucknell and Lafayette in Lejeune Hall.
East Carolina Press Release
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Although East Carolina recorded five wins in eight freestyle races, Navy won 23 total events and swept the Pirates’ men and women’s swimming and diving teams at Minges Natatorium Sunday.
The Midshipmen posted a 185-111 victory on the women’s side and a 170-128 win against the men.
Newcomer Marion Abert earned a pair of wins in her ECU debut, touching first in the women’s 500 (4:59.13) and 1000-yard (10:09.87) freestyle. She outdistanced the field by 11.87 seconds to win the 1000 freestyle and claimed first in the 500 freestyle by more than six seconds (6.32).
Junior Julie Lajoie was victorious in the 200 butterfly (2:03.09) and 200 backstroke (2:02.72). She touched just 0:00.23 in front of Delany Walz of Navy to win the 200 butterfly, but finished a comfortable 0:03.88 ahead of Ally Warnimont in 200 backstroke.
Redshirt junior Alicia Roueche, who missed the 2015-16 season with an injury, swept the women’s diving competitions with a score of 239.10 on the 1-meter springboard and 218.00 on the 3-meter board.
On the men’s side, freshman Gregga Popovic claimed first-place for ECU in the 500 (4:42.27) and 1000-yard (9:38.48) freestyle. In his first collegiate race, Popovic was 2.02 better than Navy’s Sam Ciocco in the 1000 freestyle before touching just 1.32 in front of sophomore teammate Manuel Alvarez in the 500 freestyle.
Junior Boleck DePawlikowski captured first-place in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:49.67 and sophomore Maxime Cadiat was the fastest swimmer in the 50 freestyle (21.44).
