Virginia vs. Navy

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, October 28. THE Navy men's swimming and diving team recorded a milestone victory for the program Friday evening when the Midshipmen posted a 159-139 win over Virginia in Lejeune Hall. The Cavaliers have won each of the last four Atlantic Coast Conference titles and placed eighth at the 2011 NCAA?Championship.

Friday's win by the Mids (4-0) is on the heels of Navy snapping Princeton's two-decade long home pool winning streak at the end of the 2010-11 season.

"Today's meet flowed very similar to the Princeton meet," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "There were a lot of competitive races in both meets, and we were able to come up with the close wins at the beginning to build some points and some confidence."

The women's teams from the two programs also met Friday evening in Lejeune Hall. Virginia (1-0), which also has won four consecutive ACC crowns and placed 13th at the 2011 NCAA?Championship, posted a 159-124 victory over Navy (2-2).

"Virginia is a talented and very deep team," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "They sent the largest contingent of athletes to last year's NCAA?Championship of any school that competed at the meet. Our times were solid today, and it was a great learning meet for our team to challenge ourselves against a national program such as Virginia."

The Navy men quickly jumped out to a 13-4 lead after the first event by placing first and third in the 200 medley relay. Navy's foursome of Brendan Walsh (Fr., New York, N.Y.), Luke Hoffer (So., Chapel Hill, N.C.), Steve Dukleth (Sr., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and Robbie Parker (Jr., Vienna, Va.) combined to post a time of 1:44.41 to edge the second-place Virginia (0-1) team by 13-hundredth of a second. Virginia swimmers would place first and second in the first individual event of the meet, the 800 freestyle, but Navy increased its advantage by scoring three swimmers in the 200 freestyle. Mac Anthony (Sr., Allentown, Pa.) won the event in a time of 1:50.07, Hugh Davison (So., Towson, Md.) placed third with a clocking of 1:52.17 and John Ojard (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) placed fifth with a time of 1:55.70.

The Navy lead was decreased again as Virginia swimmers placed first, third and fifth in the 100 backstroke to make the score 38-36. The Mids responded by winning each of the ensuing three events to build a 79-52 cushion. The Navy run began when Hoffer won (1:04.46) and Andrew Feeney (Jr., Norcross, Ga.) placed second (1:05.23) in the 100 breaststroke. That was followed by Mark Meyer (Sr., Bethesda, Md.) winning the 200 fly (2:01.67) by nearly two seconds with teammates Ben Bondurant (Jr., Atlanta, Ga.) and Dukleth also placing third (2:04.05) and fourth (2:06.28), respectively, in the race. Finally, Zach Ingold (So., Hornell, N.Y.) posted a time of 23.48 to edge Virginia's Tom Barrett by four-hundredth of a second for the win in the 50 freestyle.

After Virginia's J.B. Kolod scored 345.75 points to win the one-meter diving event by 34 points, the Mids again ran off back-to-back-to-back victories. Ingold and Barrett again had a great race in the 100 free, with Ingold's time of 50.88 bettering Barrett's clocking of 51.04. Anthony followed by winning his second event of the day, the 200 backstroke, with a time of 2:02.81. Hoffer would then match Anthony's victory total by winning the 200 breaststroke by one-half of a second with a time of 2:16.87. Those results gave Navy a 127-99 lead through 11 events.

Virginia swimmers placed first, second and fourth in the next event, the 400 freestyle, but that was followed by Navy claiming the top three placings in the 100 fly. Dukleth won the event in a time of 55.72, Meyer placed second with a clocking of 56.11 and Charlie Hetzel (Sr., Weddington, N.C.) finished in third place in a time of 56.45. Kolod again put together an impressive tally of 332.35 points to win the one-meter board by 13 points, then Bondurant's winning time of 2:05.68 in the 200 individual medley put Navy over the 150-point plateau that assured the Mids of the meet victory. Navy closed out the meet in style as its team of Davison, Ingold, K.C. Linn (Sr., Newhall, Calif.) and Anthony recorded a time of 3:24.98 to win the 400 free relay by just over two seconds.

"Winning the opening relay gave us such a great start," said Roberts. "Coming in, we felt we had the opportunity to win some of the races, but a few more went our way than we were maybe expecting. My congratulations to the guys for a great performance."

"Today's meet takes us to a whole new level," said Anthony. "We went into the Princeton meet last year with a lot of confidence, but we knew we needed to swim an almost perfect meet to beat Virginia today. This was the best meet I have ever been a part of."

Navy's women's team recorded two event victories during the meet against Virginia and both were posted by the team's divers. Jordyn Nicholl (Jr., Acworth, Ga.) accrued 231.52 points to edge Virginia's Carlin Tettelbach's tally of 230.17 on the one-meter board, while Courtney Vandament (Sr., Coppell, Texas) recorded 264.45 points to win the three-meter event by just under three points.

Additionally for Navy in the meet, Laura Gorinski (Jr., Greensburg, Pa.) placed second by 1.6 seconds in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.13) and second by four seconds in the 200 breast (2:35.81) and Kellie Darmody (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) finished in third place in the 100 backstroke with her time of 1:04.50.

Both Navy teams will return to Lejeune Hall on Saturday, Nov. 5, when the Mids play host to American, Bucknell and Lafayette.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x