Feb. 18, 2007

Final Stats

LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Navy women's swimming and diving team finished an impressive meet by winning five titles during the final day of the championship on its way to winning the program's first Patriot League title in five years, Sunday in Lewisburg, Pa.

The title for the Mids is the program's ninth in 15 years.

Navy began the day holding a 98-point edge over second-place Bucknell, but in the end the Mids won the championship by 161 points. The Mids totaled 805 points at the meet, with the second-place Bison finishing with 644 points.

Navy won 16 of the 20 titles over the three days of the championship.

"It was a fantastic meet," said Navy head coach John Morrison. "There were a lot of fast swims all around and I am very proud of how our girls rose to the challenges the other teams presented.

"A lot of people had a hand in this title. The process for this accomplishment began long ago with (former head coach) Dick Purdy. When I returned three years ago, we had a great assistant in Chris Villa who did a wonderful job of coaching the present seniors and helping recruit the remainder of this year's team, which poresent assistant coach Rob Lias Jr. has carried on this year. And of course Joe Suriano has done a terrific job all of these years with the divers."

The Navy men's team also won the team title, making this the second year one school has won both titles at the championship.

"We had great support from the men's team this weekend and are very pleased to see their success at the meet," said Morrison.

In addition to the team victory, the Navy program also garnered all of the individual awards at the meet. Morrison was tabbed as the league's women's coach of the year, Joe Suriano was named as the league's diving coach of the year, Kelly Zahalka (So., Richmond, Va.) received the women's swimmer-of-the-meet award, Katie Griffin (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) was selected as the female diver of the meet and Mallory Dietrich (Fr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) earned the women's rookie-of-the-meet award.

The final evening began for the Mids with Tara Chapmon (Fr., Virginia Beach, Va.) placing second in the 1650 freestyle. Chapmon posted a time of 17:04.36, the second-fastest time in Navy history, to finish 19 seconds in back of American's Meghan Thiel.

Jennie Spencer (So., Smithburg, W.Va.) then matched Chapmon's placing in the next event, the 200 backstroke. Spencer, the Navy record holder in the event, recorded a time of 2:03.73, while Kaitlin Moughty of American won the event with a clocking of 2:02.02.

Thuy-Mi Dinh (Fr., Anaheim, Calif.) picked up her second individual title of the championship by winning the 100 backstroke. Dinh, who earlier in the meet won the 50 freestyle, recorded a career-best time of 51.10 to top Colgate's Ashley Bottger by four-tenths of a second for the crown.

Joining Dinh in reaching the championship final of the event was Sarah Dorenkott (Fr., Hudson, Ohio), who placed fifth in the race with a time of 51.74.

Also winning an event for a second day at the meet was Mallory Dietrich as she posted a commanding victory in the 200 breaststroke. Dietrich, the winner of the 100 fly and 100 breast events Saturday, posted a time of 2:17.60 to win Sunday's event by 1.37 seconds over Lehigh's Melanie Rolish.

"What a first meet for Mallory," said Morrison. "We really needed her points and she came through for us. She has proven herself to already be one of the top swimmers in the league."

Team captain Aubra Thomas (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) placed fifth in the championship final with a time of 2:21.45.

Matching Dietrich with a third individual crown at the championship was Zahalka. The earlier winner of the two individual medley events at the championship, Zahalka posted a time of 2:03.79 to win the 200 butterfly by more than one-half of a second over Colgate's Emily Murphy.

"Kelly put together a fantastic meet," said Morrison. "She has worked hard all year to get to this point and fought through a number of challenges to race this well at the meet."

Finishing in third place in the final was Navy's Kalea Middendorf (Fr., Aurora, Ill.) (2:07.46), while teammate Dianna Dietrich (Sr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) placed eighth (2:10.99).

Griffin (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) made it a sweep of the diving titles at the meet as she posted a score of 288.05 points to win the three-meter springboard title by 28 points. Two other Mids also scored well in the final as Desiree' Robison (So., Tucson, Ariz.) scored 233.10 points to place fourth and Rachel Walker (Sr., Katy, Texas) placed sixth with 221.60 points.

Griffin is the fourth Mid to have won both diving titles at the Patriot League Championship. Previous Mids to have accomplished the feat were Stacia Johnson (1992), Darcy Stuart (1997) and Elizabeth Peterson (1999, 2000).

"A tremendous night and meet for Katie and all of our divers," said Suriano.

Navy ended the championship in style by winning the 400 freestyle relay, giving the Mids a sweep of all five relay events at the championship. The Navy foursome of Mallory Dietrich, Zahalka, Dorenkott and Dinh posted a time of 3:26.05 to narrowly edge Colgate's second-place time of 3:26.07.

This marks just the third time in league history that one school has won all five relay crowns at the championship. The 2007 Mids join the 1995 Navy team and the 2006 Colgate program to accomplish the feat.

Final Scores
1. Navy, 805 points
2. Bucknell, 644
3. Colgate, 598
4. Army, 353.5
5. Lehigh, 351
6. Lafayette, 331.5
7. American, 256
8. Holy Cross, 144

All-League Teams
First Team
Ashley Bottger, Colgate
Tara Chapmon, Navy
Mallory Dietrich, Navy
Thuy Mi Dinh, Navy
Sarah Dorenkott, Navy
Katie Griffin, Navy
Lisa Marchi, Colgate
Kaitlin Moughty, American
Kat Munson, Bucknell
Kate Murphy, Colgate
Amanda Otto, Army
Melanie Rolish, Lehigh
Rebecca Scheffter, Bucknell
Meghan Thiel, American
Aubra Thomas, Navy
Beverly Walker, Colgate
Nikki Woodward, Bucknell
Kelly Zahalka, Navy

Second Team
Lindsay Adao, Army
Karen Baker, Colgate
Betsy Balaguer, Lehigh
Rebecca Bersani, Bucknell
Caitie Curran, Colgate
Kim DeFiori, Army
Liz Geary, Lafayette
Laura Goeller, Bucknell
Eliza Massie, Bucknell
Julie Mitchell, Lehigh
Megan Mongan, Bucknell
Kelly Morris, Bucknell
Emily Murphy, Colgate
Desiree' Robison, Navy
Allison Rolish, Lehigh
Kristen Skroski, Bucknell
Jennie Spencer, Navy
Courtney Warren, Bucknell