Nov. 4, 2006
Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy women's swimming and diving team totaled 13 victories on the day to record dual meet victories over both Colgate and Lehigh, Saturday afternoon in Lejeune Hall. The Midshipmen topped the Raiders by a score of 186-109 and the Mountain Hawks by a tally of 209-86 to improve their record on the year to 7-0. Colgate, which also posted a 200-99 win over Lehigh on the day, improved to 3-2 on the year, with the Mountain Hawks dropping to 0-3 on the season with the two losses.
"I'm really proud of how we performed today," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "After a strong showing last week, the team trained hard all week and came back today with another great day of racing. We were really on.
"There were some great swims by those who won events today, but what won the meet was our depth. How those who finished second, third and fourth swam was great to see. They may not always receive a lot of recognition for their vital performances, but their efforts are why we have had good results this year."
Headlining the Navy day were Tara Chapmon (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) and Mallory Dietrich (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.), who each won a trio of individual events during the meet.
Chapmon began her day by recording a time of 9:08.21 to post a five-second victory in the 800-meter freestyle, then returned to the pool in the very next event to post a 2:04.15 to win the 200-meter freestyle by seven-tenths of a second over teammate Sarah Dorenkott (Fr., Hudson, Ohio). Her day ended after recording a 4:19.13 to win the 400-meter freestyle by 14 seconds.
Chapmon's time in the 200 free set a new Lejeune Hall in the event, breaking the standard of 2:04.59 set last week by Dorenkott. In addition, Chapmon also broke the pool record in the 400 free, erasing the time of 4:20.40 set a decade ago by George Washington's Bambi Bowman.
"Tara had an unbelievable meet," said Morrison. "She had a great time in winning the 800 free, and to come back and not just win, but also post a pool record in the very next event is impressive."
Dietrich also continued her strong rookie season by posting victories in both breaststroke events and in the 100 fly. She set a new Lejeune Hall record and achieved a NCAA 'B' cut qualifying time in winning the 100 breaststroke with a clocking of 1:10.65, won the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:35.41 and posted a time of 1:02.77 in winning the 100 fly.
Her time in the 100 breaststroke broke the record of 1:10.96 set in 1995 by Julia Mason. Her performance comes one week after breaking the pool record and achieving a NCAA 'B' cut qualifying time in the 200 breast.
In addition to Chapmon winning the distance freestyle events for Navy, Thuy-Mi Dinh (Fr., Anaheim, Calif.) won the 50 free and Dorenkott won the 100 free to give the Mids a sweep of the sprint freestyle contests.
Other Mids to tally an individual event victory on the day were Katie Griffin (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.), who won both diving boards, and Kelly Zahalka (So., Richmond, Va.), who won the 200 butterfly.
Navy also swept the two relay races with Dinh, team captain Aubra Thomas (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.), Rachel Gray (Jr., Latrobe, Pa.) and Dorenkott combining to win the 400 freestyle relay, and the team of Jennie Spencer (So., Smithburg, W. Va.), Thomas, Dietrich and Dinh winning the 200 medley relay.
Despite this being just the fourth weekend of the season, Saturday's meet was the final home meet of the year for the Mids and, for the senior class of Julie Holland (Sr., Shrewsbury, Mass.), Hollace Mulliken (Sr., Ephraim, Wis.), Rachel Walker (Sr., Katy, Texas) and Thomas, the final time they will compete in Lejeune Hall.
"It is a strange schedule we have this year, with ending our home season so soon," said Morrison. "November is a difficult time to properly honor our seniors, but our entire team knew this was the last home meet of their careers and really wanted to send them off in style."
Navy's next meet will be Nov. 11 when the Mids face Bucknell and Lafayette in Lewisburg, Pa.
