Dec. 1, 2005
Final Stats | Photo Gallery
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy won 12 events and set four pool and Army-Navy metric pool records to defeat Army, 188.50-111.50, Thursday afternoon in Annapolis. The victory was the 17th in a row by Navy in the women's swimming and diving series.
"I was very pleased with how our girls swam and competed today," said Navy swimming head coach John Morrison. "We came out fighting right from the start of the meet and were able to carry that through the meet."
Navy set the tone for the meet by posting a Lejeune Hall and Army-Navy metric pool record in winning the 200 medley relay. Navy's foursome of Jennie Spencer (Fr., Smithburg, W. Va.), Aubra Thomas (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.), Cameron Wallace (Fr., Fredericksburg, Va.) and Kelly Zahalka (Fr., Richmond, Va.) recorded a time of 1:58.22 to break the record of 2:00.27 set by Army in 1999.
The Mids then placed 1-2-3-4 in the 800 freestyle, with Sally Bakewell (Fr., St. John's, Fla.) recording a time of 9:12.74 to win the event. After Bakewell's win, Zahalka recorded a 2:04.79 to win the 200 freestyle by over three seconds.
Spencer picked up her first individual victory of the meet by setting a new Lejeune Hall and Army-Navy metric record of 1:03.94 in winning the 100 backstroke. Thomas followed by posting a two second margin of victory in winning the 100 breaststroke (1:11.87), then Wallace recorded a time of 2:22.78 in winning the 200 fly.
Army picked up its first victory of the meet as Paige Dellavalle edged Rachel Gray (So., Latrobe, Pa.) by one hundredth of a second in winning the 50 free, 27.57 to 27.58, then made it two wins in a row with Chelsea Haviland setting a new Army-Navy meet record to win the one meter diving event with a score of 287.48.
Navy won the next four events to put the meet out of reach, with Zahalka winning the 100 free (57.92, new Lejeune Hall and Army-Navy metric record) and 400 free events (4:24.77). Also winning events in this stretch for Navy was Spencer in the 200 backstroke (2:17.26, new Lejeune Hall and Army-Navy metric record) and Thomas in the 200 breaststroke (2:38.86).
Army won back-to-back events for the second time in the meet, with Chelsey Haviland winning the 100 fly (1:05.54) and Haviland winning the three-meter springboard in a new Army-Navy meet record of 319.20.
Thomas closed the individual event portion of the meet by winning the 200 individual medley with a clocking of 2:22.94, then Navy concluded the meet by placing first (4:00.63) and third (4:07.82) in the 400 freestyle relay.
"With over half of our roster competing in their first Army-Navy meet, our upperclass did a great job in getting the new athletes ready," said Morrison.
"Having so many plebes really helped the upperclass today," said team captain Mandy Minikus (Sr., Raleigh, N.C.). "We saw their excitement and enthusiasm and that helped fire us up even more."
Navy improves to 6-3 on the season, with Army falling to 3-2 on the year.
