Nov. 5, 2005

Final Stats

HAMILTON, N.Y. -- The Navy women's swimming and diving team split a pair of dual meets Saturday afternoon in Hamilton, N.Y., recording a 220-80 victory over Lehigh and losing a 166-134 decision in Colgate's Lineberry Pool. The Midshipmen are now 4-2 on the season with the two decisions.

"We are thrilled with how we swam," said Navy head swimming coach John Morrison. "The times were much better than last week and are closer to our times before we had some illnesses and injuries on the team. We had a number of strong performances to be pleased about today."

Jennie Spencer (Fr., Smithburg, W. Va.) had another strong day in the pool for the Midshipmen, winning both backstroke events and placing second in the 50 free. Spencer recorded a time of 58.81 in winning the 100 back and a 2:06.81 in winning the 200 back, while her time of 24.87 placed her second by four-tenths of a second to Colgate's Chrissy Zaika in the 50 free. Her 200 backstroke time is the fourth-fastest clocking by a Mid in Navy history and is less than one second behind the school standard of 2:05.96 set by Stacey Haynes in 1996.

Navy's lone additional double event winner on the day was Katie Griffin (So., Ellicott City, Md.) who swept the two diving boards. Griffin, who improved her combined record on the year to 6-2 with the pair of wins, won the one meter with a score of 241.60 and the three meter with 299.15 points. She narrowly edged Colgate's Emily McAuliff by 7.6 points on the one meter, then outdistanced Colgate's Jen Rodgers by 44 points on the three meter.

Diana Dietrich (So., New Kensington, Pa.) also picked up a victory for Navy on the day, leading a 1-2-3 finish for the Mids in the 200 fly. Dietrich won the event in a time of 2:11.47, with teammates Clare McKenna (Fr., Garden City, N.J.) placing second (2:13.61) and Cameron Wallace (Fr., Fredericksburg, Va.) placing third (2:13.71).

Rounding out the event winners for Navy was Kelly Zahalka (Fr., Richmond, Va.), who recorded a 4:32.62 to win the 400 individual medley by over five seconds. Her clocking in the event is the fifth-fastest in Navy history. In addition to her victory, Zahalka also placed second in the 500 free (5:12.61) and 1000 free (10:27.01).

The Midshipmen will return to the pool Nov. 12 when Navy competes against Bucknell and Lafayette in Lewisburg, Pa.