Navy Edges Army to Continue Streak

The Army-Navy meet 2016. Contributed/Army Athletics

By Dan D’Addona.

Army-Navy week ends with one of the most iconic football games in the country.

It began on Saturday with one of the closest swim meets in the history of the rivalry.

Like in football, Navy had held the upper hand in the rivalry recently, the Midshipman winning the past 25 Star Meets between the two military academies.

Navy hung on to make it 26 in a row for the men, but did so edging Army 156.5-143.5 on Saturday at West Point — the closest meet in the rivalry since 1994. Army had one of its best performances, actually outscoring Navy by 12 points in the swimming events, but the Black Knights were swept on the diving boards.

The Navy women won their 28th in a row, wining 194-106.

In the men’s meet, the 100 freestyle showed the closeness of the meet as Navy’s Zach Piedt and Army’s Evin Rude tied for the victory, both touching the wall in a time of 44.76.

Navy’s Bradley Buchter accrued 327.23 points to win the first board by nine points over Joe Kaszubowski and 13 points over Nate Belch. Then the Midshipmen won the opening 200-yard medley relay with Chipper Machmehl, Marlin Brutkiewicz, Ryan Bailey and Michael Bundas winning with a time of 1:27.83 to better the pool record (1:28.47).

Brutkiewicz won the 100 breast in a pool record and NCAA “B” cut time of 53.33. He edged Army’s Joe Daniels (also a “B” cut) for the win by two hundredths of a second.

In the 50 freestyle, Connor Davis won the event in a time of 20.49, Piedt was second in a clocking of 20.51 and Bundas was third with his time of 20.55. Navy was able to extend its lead out to 99-70 when Buchter (344.25), Kaszubowski (324.97) and Belch (311.10) went 1-2-3, respectively, on the 1-meter board.

Going into the final event, Navy had to either win the relay race or score two teams in it to secure the meet win. Navy’s foursome of Joseph Jaime, Piedt, Ethan Whitaker and Davis would record a time of 2:56.43 to win the race by 2.14 seconds and break both the pool (2:57.66) and meet (2:57.05) records.

Army’s trio of Sean Regan, Johnny Ellery and Peter Mikheyev swept the top three spots in the 200 butterfly with marks of 1:45.85, 1:46.32 and 1:48.18, respectively. For Regan, it was an academy record. Mikheyev also set an academy and pool record in winning the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:48.44.

Tom Ottman won the 1,000 freestyle with a time of 9:06.47. The sophomore also won the 500 freestyle in 4:26.09. Rude posted a new academy record as he touched the wall first in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:36.77. Rude also tied for first in the 100 freestyle clocking in at 44.76 seconds.

Josh Sembrano tied his own academy record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 48.39 seconds. Sembrano and Mike Stanchi went first and second in the 200 backstroke with marks of 1:46.90 and 1:47.22, respectively.

In the women’s meet, Navy broke the pool record (1:41.71) in the 200 medley relay as Biz Graeff, Lauren Barber, Hannah Briant and Kenzie Margroum combined for a time of 1:41.18 to win, then Maddie Runge posted a time of 9:58.44 to lead a 1-2-4 Navy finish. Casey Lawson followed by breaking the pool record (1:48.29) and bettering the NCAA “B” cut standard (1:47.99) in winning the 200 free in 1:47.64.

Army got a victory of the meet when Kelly Hamilton won the 100 back by 1.34 seconds over Graeff, but Barber (1:01.41) and teammate Elyse MacIssac (1:02.55) started a new streak for Navy with their 1-2 showing in the 100 breast. Delaney Walz and Lauren Greenberg also went 1-2 for Navy in the next event, the 200 fly, with Walz’s time of 1:59.29 bettering the pool standard (2:00.44),

The meet ended with a bang as Navy’s Morrell, Kelly Harrington, Lawson and Margroum broke a pool record in the 400 free relay that stood for 40 years and was set by the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team. Navy’s swimmers touched the wall in a time of 3:21.62 to win the race by 1.6 seconds and better the record time of 3:22.76 by 1.14 seconds.

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Bryan Fink

7 years ago

Ummm…they’re Navy…

Sharon Ottman

7 years ago

Army swam their heart out. So proud of all of them!

Keri Sullivan

7 years ago

Neil Joseph

7 years ago

Reply to Keri Sullivan

Boooom!

Chuck Kroll

7 years ago

Casey & MIckey! Nice job gentlemen! Cheers!

Bill Bell

7 years ago

Wonder if Navy’s Maddie Runge either sister of or related to,former Cal Gokden Bear and current Wisconsin Badger Cierra, who,almost beat Leahn Smith for 500 free gold @ last March NCAAs?

Speaking of Smith, their duel @ NCAAs should be a classic and possibly enough to push Ledecky below the 4:20 mark!

Think,Peter Vanderkaay’s men’s record (4:08-plus) out of reach but ya’ never know. After all, records are made to be broken — just ask Joseph Schooling!

Now watch: he’ll go 43.5 @ Big 12s then 42.9’@ NCAAs.

Tom who?

Dave Hoover

7 years ago

Joel Dodds Logan Dodds Marie Skinner Dodds Go Navy!

Dave LaBerge

7 years ago

Go Navy, but the best name for a swimmer belongs to Army’s Ervin Rude