Oct. 15, 2005
Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened their 2005-06 dual meet seasons by posting a pair of victories over George Washington and Loyola, Saturday afternoon in Lejeune Hall. In the men's meet, Navy defeated George Washington 188-105 and Loyola by a score of 219.5-69.5. On the women's side, the Mids recorded a 180-111 win over the Colonials and a 211-84 victory over the Greyhounds.
Both Navy teams started the meet off well by winning the 200 medley relay and placing 1-2-3 in the 800 freestyle. Sally Bakewell (Fr., St. John's. Fla.) won the 800 free for the Mids in a time of 9:26.45, with Kevin Mukri (Jr., Silver Spring, Md.) winning the men's event with a time of 8:42.54. Rachel Gray (So., Latrobe, Pa.) and Andrew Thorn (So., Elizabethtown, Pa.) would quickly follow for the Mids with victories in the 200 freestyle. Gray was clocked in a time of 2:08.82 to win the event by three seconds, while Thorn posted a 1:55.79 to win by nearly one second.
Kelly Zahalka (Fr., Richmond, Va.) claimed the next Navy victory of the meet by taking the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:15.72, then Dianna Dietrich (So., New Kensignton, Pa.) and Ian Getzler (Sr., Naperville, Ill.) both won the 200 fly for Navy. Dietrich won the women's event in a time of 2:25.90, with Getzler winning the men's event in a time of 2:15.31. Aubra Thomas (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Joe Smutz (Sr., Marriottsville, Md.) would both win the 50 free for the Mids with times of 27.09 for Thomas and 23.46 for Smutz, victories which were soon followed by Zahalka and Smutz winning the 100 free for Navy (59.47 and 52.16, respectively).
Mukri picked up his second individual event victory of the afternoon by posting a 2:07.39 to win the 200 backstroke, with Thomas matching Mukri's win total on the day when she claimed the 200 breaststroke (2:45.94). Bakewell was the next Navy event winner of the afternoon, winning the 400 freestyle (4:37.38), with teammate Clare McKenna (Fr., Garden City, N.J.) and Thorn winning the 100 fly for the Mids. McKenna posted a 1:07.28 while Thorn won in a time of 58.89.
The Navy women's team closed the day by setting a Lejeune Hall record of 8:41.40 in the 800 free relay. Navy's foursome of Jennie Spencer (Fr., Smithburg, W. Va.), Gray, Thomas and Zahalka broke the mark of 8:41.95 set by East Carolina in the spring of 1988.
The Mids also found success in the diving well on the afternoon as Katie Griffin (So., Ellicott City, Md.) and Kevin Teague (Jr., Lexington, Ky.) both swept the two boards.
"It was a full team effort today," said Navy men's swimming coach Bill Roberts. "It was a good first meet of the season. I was pleased with both the times and the efforts of all swimmers and divers today, efforts which led to two big wins."
It was a great outing for our girls," said Navy women's coach John Morrison. "G.W. and Loyola both swam very well, and we were pleased to compete well against them. Overall, I was really pleased with the efforts of our team from top to bottom. The team is training hard and responding very well. Individually, all of our distance corps had a great outing. Sally posted some nice swims and really set the hard nosed work attitude in the 800. Rachel Gray backed it up with an outstanding swim in the 200 and 100 freestyles. Jennie Spencer and Kelly Zahalka are swimming very well and great to watch. In the last event, the team of Aubra Thomas, Kelly Zahalka, Jennie Spencer and Rachel Gray had a great swim to knock off a pool record. That is the midshipmen effort fighting to the end! We have some work to do, but we will take these two solid wins following a Friday night relay meet."
Both Navy teams will be in action on Oct. 22 when the Mids play host to Johns Hopkins.
