Navy Sweeps Patriot League Champs

LEWISBURG, Pennsylvania, February 18. NAVY picked up a pair of Patriot League titles as both the men's and women's teams emerged triumphant at the meet held in Lewisburg, Pa.

In the men's meet, a deep Navy team won eight of the 17 titles on the weekend to win its fourth Patriot League title in as many years. Meanwhile, the Navy women finished an impressive meet by winning five titles during the final day of the championship on its way to winning the program's first Patriot League title in five years. The title for the Mids is the program's ninth in 15 years, but first since 2002.

After taking a 74-point lead on day one of the men's championship, Navy's margin over second-place Army dropped to 65 points following the second day. In the end, however, Navy totaled 864 points to outdistance the Black Knights by 93 points (771).

"Heading into this morning, our ability to extend the league concerned us," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "However, the guys swam great this morning and did even better during the evening session.

"I am very proud of our team, especially our seniors who rallied everyone together. This was never an easy meet and the final score doesn't show how close this meet really was. Every session was a real battle."

Navy has won the league crown in each of the four years it has competed at the Patriot League championship.

The Navy women's team also won the team title this weekend, making this the second year one school has won both titles at the championship.

"We are ecstatic for John Morrison and the entire women's team," said Roberts. "Our hats are off to them for bringing the trophy back to Lejeune Hall."

The Mids placed a pair of swimmers among the top-six swimmers in the first event of the final day of the meet, the 1650 freestyle. Bucknell's Luke Trafton won the event with a time of 15:39.68, with Navy's Cody Reeb (Fr., St. Louis, Mo.) placing second in a time of 15:54.11, and team captain Andy Bockus (Sr., Oklahoma City, Okla.) finishing in sixth place with a 16:20.38 clocking.

History was then made in the one-meter springboard event as Navy's Kevin Teague (Sr., Lexington, Ky.) won the event with a score of 323.45. The victory gives Teague a sweep of the diving events at not only the 2007 championship, but also at each of his four league meets. He is the first male diver to total eight Patriot League diving titles.

Teague was named as the male diver of the meet for the fourth-straight year, which helped Navy's Joe Suriano to be named as the league's diving coach of the year.

"Teague is such a tough diver," said Suriano.

"Kevin is one of the best we have ever had," said Roberts.

The event capped a great weekend for the Navy men's divers as Jon Galinski (So., Phoenix, Md.) placed third on the one meter with a score of 278.45 and Adam Niekras (Jr., Liverpool, N.Y.) finished fourth with 259.15 points.

Billy Vey (So., Huntersville, N.C.) followed Teague's performance by winning the 200 backstroke in a career-best time — and the fourth-fastest time in school history — of 1:49.05. He won the title by four-tenths of a second over Lehigh's Tom Gilbert. Vey was joined in the final by teammate Danny Mizelle (Jr., Rockville, Va.), who placed fourth with a time of 1:52.37.

A trio of Mids then competed in the championship final of the 100 freestyle. Alex Oldenkamp (So., Coppell, Texas) placed second with a career-best time of 45.63, Preston Mihalko (So., Chesapeake, Va.) placed fourth with a clocking of 46.21 and Andrew Plumb (Sr., Altadena, Calif.) finished seventh with a time of 46.71.

Army's Efri Ruthenberg won the 100 free final with a time of 45.07.

The Black Knights made it two victories in a row as Jake Mentele won the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:03.06. He was joined in the championship final by three Navy swimmers. Adam Meyer (Fr., Bethesda, Md.), the 400 individual medley champion, placed second with a time of career-best time of 2:03.06, while Andrew Utama (Fr., Walnut Creek, Calif.) finished fourth (2:05.13) and Mike Lowhorn (Jr., St. Louis, Mo.) placed sixth (2:06.90).

The next event saw Navy's Tyler Hill (Jr., Houston, Texas) edged by Army's Zach Disbrow in the 200 fly final. Disbrow won the race in a Patriot League record time of 1:48.12, with Hill placing second in a time of 1:51.20. Navy's James Lascara (Fr., Charlotte, N.C.), the 500 freestyle titlist at the championship, placed fifth in the 200 fly final with a time of 1:52.44.

Navy ended the meet by placing second to Army in the 400 freestyle relay. The Black Knights won the final with a time of 3:00.92, while the Navy team of Oldenkamp, Mihalko, Tyler Hill (Jr., Houston, Texas) and Plumb posted a time of 3:01.21.

Navy will now set its sights on the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championship, which begins Thursday.

"Every year we want to improve our showing at the EISL meet," said Roberts. "After this meet, I feel pretty positive about our ability to do just that at Easterns."

Navy began the day holding a 98-point edge in the women's meet over second-place Bucknell, but in the end the Mids won the championship by 161 points. The Mids totaled 805 points at the meet, with the second-place Bison finishing with 644 points.

Navy won 16 of the 20 titles over the three days of the championship.

"It was a fantastic meet," said Navy head coach John Morrison. "There were a lot of fast swims all around and I am very proud of how our girls rose to the challenges the other teams presented.

"A lot of people had a hand in this title. The process for this accomplishment began long ago with (former head coach) Dick Purdy. When I returned three years ago, we had a great assistant in Chris Villa who did a wonderful job of coaching the present seniors and helping recruit the remainder of this year's team, which poresent assistant coach Rob Lias has carried on this year. And of course Joe Suriano has done a terrific job all of these years with the divers."

The Navy men's team also won the team title, making this the second year one school has won both titles at the championship.

"We had great support from the men's team this weekend and are very pleased to see their success at the meet," said Morrison.

In addition to the team victory, the Navy program also garnered all of the individual awards at the meet. Morrison was tabbed as the league's women's coach of the year, Joe Suriano was named as the league's diving coach of the year, Kelly Zahalka (So., Richmond, Va.) received the women's swimmer-of-the-meet award, Katie Griffin (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) was selected as the female diver of the meet and Mallory Dietrich (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) earned the women's rookie-of-the-meet award.

The final evening began for the Mids with Tara Chapmon (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) placing second in the 1650 freestyle. Chapmon posted a time of 17:04.36, the second-fastest time in Navy history, to finish 19 seconds in back of American's Meghan Thiel.

Jennie Spencer (So., Smithburg, W.Va.) then matched Chapmon's placing in the next event, the 200 backstroke. Spencer, the Navy record holder in the event, recorded a time of 2:03.73, while Kaitlin Moughty of American won the event with a clocking of 2:02.02.

Thuy-Mi Dinh (Fr., Anaheim, Calif.) picked up her second individual title of the championship by winning the 100 backstroke. Dinh, who earlier in the meet won the 50 freestyle, recorded a career-best time of 51.10 to top Colgate's Ashley Bottger by four-tenths of a second for the crown.

Joining Dinh in reaching the championship final of the event was Sarah Dorenkott (Fr., Hudson, Ohio), who placed fifth in the race with a time of 51.74.

Also winning an event for a second day at the meet was Mallory Dietrich as she posted a commanding victory in the 200 breaststroke. Dietrich, the winner of the 100 fly and 100 breast events Saturday, posted a time of 2:17.60 to win Sunday's event by 1.37 seconds over Lehigh's Melanie Rolish.

"What a first meet for Mallory," said Morrison. "We really needed her points and she came through for us. She has proven herself to already be one of the top swimmers in the league."

Team captain Aubra Thomas (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) placed fifth in the championship final with a time of 2:21.45.

Matching Dietrich with a third individual crown at the championship was Zahalka. The earlier winner of the two individual medley events at the championship, Zahalka posted a time of 2:03.79 to win the 200 butterfly by more than one-half of a second over Colgate's Emily Murphy.

"Kelly put together a fantastic meet," said Morrison. "She has worked hard all year to get to this point and fought through a number of challenges to race this well at the meet."

Finishing in third place in the final was Navy's Kalea Middendorf (Fr., Aurora, Ill.) (2:07.46), while teammate Dianna Dietrich (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) placed eighth (2:10.99).

Griffin (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) made it a sweep of the diving titles at the meet as she posted a score of 288.05 points to win the three-meter springboard title by 28 points. Two other Mids also scored well in the final as Desiree' Robison (So., Tucson, Ariz.) scored 233.10 points to place fourth and Rachel Walker (Sr., Katy, Texas) placed sixth with 221.60 points.

Griffin is the fourth Mid to have won both diving titles at the Patriot League Championship. Previous Mids to have accomplished the feat were Stacia Johnson (1992), Darcy Stuart (1997) and Elizabeth Peterson (1999, 2000).

"A tremendous night and meet for Katie and all of our divers," said Suriano.

Navy ended the championship in style by winning the 400 freestyle relay, giving the Mids a sweep of all five relay events at the championship. The Navy foursome of Mallory Dietrich, Zahalka, Dorenkott and Dinh posted a time of 3:26.05 to narrowly edge Colgate's second-place time of 3:26.07.

This marks just the third time in league history that one school has won all five relay crowns at the championship. The 2007 Mids join the 1995 Navy team and the 2006 Colgate program to accomplish the feat.

Men
1. Navy, 864 points
2. Army, 771
3. Bucknell, 557
4. Lehigh, 420
5. Colgate, 285
6. American, 223
7. Lafayette, 191
8. Holy Cross, 126

All-League Teams
First Team
Andy Bockus, Navy
Zach Disbrow, Army
Tom Gilbert, Lehigh
Tyler Hill, Navy
Dan Johnson, Lehigh
Mark Kawczenski, Bucknell
James Lascara, Navy
Jake Mentele, Army
Adam Meyer, Navy
Preston Mihalko, Navy
Ari Molina, Navy
Kyle Newman, Army
Andrew Plumb, Navy
Cody Reeb, Navy
Efri Ruthenberg, Army
Kevin Teague, Navy
Luke Trafton, Bucknell
Billy Vey, Navy

Second Team
Matt Bank, American
Cary Cohan, Army
Clark Cohen, Bucknell
Greg Dunlavey, Colgate
Jonathan Galinski, Navy
Dave Hill, Colgate
John Hutchison, Army
Jon Kearney, Lehigh
Kevin McGrath, Lehigh
Ben Leboza, Bucknell
Joe Metcalf, Bucknell
Adam Niekras, Navy
Alex Oldenkamp, Colgate
Steve Rubino, Lafayette
Greg Sievers, Army
Grant Steadman, Bucknell
Andrew Utama, Navy
Quentin Walsh, Army

Women
1. Navy, 805 points
2. Bucknell, 644
3. Colgate, 598
4. Army, 353.5
5. Lehigh, 351
6. Lafayette, 331.5
7. American, 256
8. Holy Cross, 144

All-League Teams
First Team
Ashley Bottger, Colgate
Tara Chapmon, Navy
Mallory Dietrich, Navy
Thuy Mi Dinh, Navy
Sarah Dorenkott, Navy
Katie Griffin, Navy
Lisa Marchi, Colgate
Kaitlin Moughty, American
Kat Munson, Bucknell
Kate Murphy, Colgate
Amanda Otto, Army
Melanie Rolish, Lehigh
Rebecca Scheffter, Bucknell
Meghan Thiel, American
Aubra Thomas, Navy
Beverly Walker, Colgate
Nikki Woodward, Bucknell
Kelly Zahalka, Navy

Second Team
Lindsay Adao, Army
Karen Baker, Colgate
Betsy Balaguer, Lehigh
Rebecca Bersani, Bucknell
Caitie Curran, Colgate
Kim DeFiori, Army
Liz Geary, Lafayette
Laura Goeller, Bucknell
Eliza Massie, Bucknell
Julie Mitchell, Lehigh
Megan Mongan, Bucknell
Kelly Morris, Bucknell
Emily Murphy, Colgate
Desiree Robison, Navy
Allison Rolish, Lehigh
Kristen Skroski, Bucknell
Jennie Spencer, Navy
Courtney Warren, Bucknell

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