Feb. 19, 2009

Final Stats

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Navy swimming programs both enjoyed very strong days Thursday on the opening day of the 2009 Patriot League Championship. The three-day event is being contested at Kinney Natatorium on the Bucknell campus in Lewisburg, Pa.

The Navy men's team won five of six events on the day to jump out to a 132-point advantage over the rest of the field, while the Navy women's program finds itself only 15 points out of first place despite winning just two of five events. Navy leads the men's competition with a score of 293 points, Bucknell is in second place with 161 points and Army placed third on the opening day of the meet with 143 points. Defending women's champion Colgate leads its competition with 210 points, 2007 titlists Navy is in second place with 195 points, and 2006 league champion Bucknell stands in third place with 172 points.

Winning titles for Navy Thursday were Tara Chapmon in the 500 freestyle, Thuy-Mi Dinh in the 50 free, Erik Hunter in the 500 free, Adam Meyer in the 200 individual medley, and the Navy men in the 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay events.

The Navy contingent also set several records on the day. Individually, Chapmon broke her own Navy and Patriot League record in the 500 free, Dinh broke her own school and league standard in the trial heats of the 50 free and Hunter bettered his own Navy and league records in the 500 free. The Navy women's 200 freestyle relay team broke the school record in placing second in the event, as did its 400 medley squad in placing third overall in its race. On the men's side, Navy's 400 medley relay team set a new Navy and Patriot League record in its victory.

"The key to our success today was being able to have so many great swims in the morning," said Navy men's swimming head coach. "That allowed us to place multiple swimmers into every final, and they guys swam really well off of that. They know the strengths of each other and did a good job of swimming together. We are very satisfied with our performance today and are anxious to hit the water again Friday."

"We are putting up some great times in every race," said Navy women's head coach John Morrison. "Any day you set four school records and have almost 100 percent personal-best times is a great day. Tara and Thuy-Mi led us with their great victories, but up-and-down the lanes we are swimming very well. We need build upon our effort and have another strong day by everyone Friday."

Women's Standings
1. Colgate, 210 points
2. Navy, 195
3. Bucknell, 172
4. American, 98
5. Army, 82
6. Lehigh, 75
7. Holy Cross, 46
8. Lafayette, 37

Men's Standings
1. Navy, 293
2. Bucknell, 161
3. Army, 143
4. Colgate, 98
5. American, 63
6. Lehigh, 61
7. Lafayette, 50
8. Holy Cross, 24

200 Freestyle Relay
Women
Colgate broke the Patriot League and Patriot League Championship record by 2.5 seconds with their winning time of 1:31.57. Navy's foursome of Allison Ranzau, Sylvia Knap, Tara Chapmon and Thuy-Mi Dinh posted a time of 1:33.22 to place second in the race and break the school record in the event by one second (1:34.20).

Navy Results
2. Navy (Allison Ranzau, Sylvia Knap, Tara Chapmon, Thuy-Mi Dinh), 1:33.22 (new Navy record)

Men
The Navy men's team was pushed by Bucknell throughout the race, but in the end the Mids edged the Bison for the title by just under one-half of a second. Navy's foursome of Aaron Aiken, Nathan Durham, Joe Unruh and Alex Oldenkamp picked up the first title of the championship for the Mids with a time of 1:20.79.

Navy has won this event in each of the six years it has competed at the Patriot League Championship.

Navy Results
1. Navy (Aaron Aiken, Nathan Durham, Joe Unruh, Alex Oldenkamp), 1:20.79

500 Free
Women
The final placing of the 500 freestyle event at the 2008 league championship saw Navy's Tara Chapmon in first and teammate Allison Ranzau in second. The duo repeated their 1-2 finish this year with Chapmon claiming the fifth individual event title of her career with a winning time of 4:45.12 and Ranzau recording a clocking of 4:52.18 to place second. Chapmon's time broke her own Navy and league record of 4:46.68 and her previous league meet mark of 4:46.70.

Joining Chapmon and Ranzau in the championship final was teammate Lauren Milliron, who placed eighth.

Navy Results
Championship Final
1. Tara Chapmon, 4:45.12 (new Navy, P.L. P.L. Champ. record); 2. Allison Ranzau, 4:52.18; 8. Lauren Milliron, 5:06.90
Consolation Final
2. Erika Hubbard, 5:01.15

Men
The trial heat of the men's 500 freestyle saw defending league champion Luke Trafton from Bucknell break the league record by nearly two seconds with a time of 4:23.37. Finishing just behind him in the morning was Navy's Erik Hunter, who broke his own Navy standard by almost four seconds with his time of 4:23.52.

In the evening's final, however, Hunter led a 1-2-3-4 Navy finish with his record-setting time of 4:18.56. Finishing one second behind Hunter was Mac Anthony, with Sam Martinette and team captain Dan Warner following in third and fourth place, respectively. Trafton would have to settle for sixth place in the final with his time of 4:31.94.

Navy Results
Championship Final
1. Erik Hunter, 4:18.56 (Navy, P.L., P.L. Champ. record); 2. Mac Anthony, 4:19.75; 3. Sam Martinette, 4:26.27; 4. Dan Warner, 4:29.56; 8. Jack Curran, 4:38.57
Consolation Final
None

200 Individual Medley
Women
Natalie Albertson posted the eighth-fastest time in the 200 IM in school history with her clocking of 2:05.02 in the championship final of the event. The time placed her fourth in the race, with teammate Allison Aichele finishing in seventh place, as well.

Winning the championship final was Colgate's Emily Murphy with a time of 2:01.06.

Navy Results
Championship Final
4. Natalie Albertson, 2:05.02; 7. Allison Aichele, 2:07.09
Consolation Final
1. Kelly Zahalka, 2:05.80; 2. Tessa Snow, 2:06.86; 5. Jennie Spencer, 2:08.68

Men
Navy dominated the morning trial heats of the 200 individual medley, with Mids posting the five fastest times of the session. Leading the way was Adam Meyer with his time of 1:46.22. It was more of the same in the championship final of the event later in the evening as Navy swimmers placed first, second, third, fourth and fifth in the race.

Meyer's winning time of 1:45.33 -- which narrowly missed the NCAA `A' cut qualifying time of 1:44.13 - gave him a four-second cushion over second-place finisher Billy Vey and was just shy of his own school and league standard of 1:45.16. Finishing on the heels of Meyer and Vey were, in order, Mark Meyer, Patrick Veltman and Jesse Cohen.

Navy Results
Championship Final
1. Adam Meyer, 1:45.33; 2. Billy Vey, 1:49.30; 3. Mark Meyer, 1:49.94; 4. Patrick Veltman, 1:50.43; 5. Jesse Cohen, 1:52.62
Consolation Final
5. Andrew Utama, 1:54.68

50 Freestyle
Women
A year ago, Navy's Thuy-Mi Dinh won the 50 freestyle at the league championship with a Navy and Patriot League record time of 22.37. Thursday morning in the preliminary heats she lowered the record down to 22.36, then returned at night to win her third 50 freestyle crown in as many years with a winning time of 22.38. She finished 35-hundredth of a second in front of second-place finisher Ashley Bottger from Colgate.

Dinh is the third female in league history to win the 50 free title in three consecutive years.

Navy Results
Championship Final
1. Thuy-Mi Dinh, 22.38
Consolation Final
2. Sylvia Knap, 23.90

Men
The morning heats of the 50 free saw Bucknell's Mark Kawczenski edge defending league champion Alex Oldenkamp from Navy for the top time by three-hundredth of a second (20.32-20.35). The finals of the event would be even closer, with just two-hundredth of a second separating the two swimmers. Kawczenski would again finish just ahead of Oldenkamp in the final with a time of 20.26.

Also placing among the top-eight finishers in the event were Navy's Nathan Durham (sixth place) and Aaron Aiken (eighth).

Navy Results
Championship Final
2. Alex Oldenkamp, 20.28; 6. Nathan Durham, 20.56; 8. Aaron Aiken, 20.66 Consolation Final
2. Joe Unruh, 20.88

One-Meter Diving
Men
The Navy tandem of Olaf Olson and Jon Galinski finished 1-2 in the morning trial heats Thursday, with Olson posting a score of 372.72 and 2008 Patriot League Diver of the Year Galinski recording a score of 355.65. Galinski's tally was 75 points ahead of the next closest diver. Things tightened up a bit in the final, but Olson and Galinski again placed first and second Thursday night. Olson picked up the first Patriot League title of his career with a winning score of 360.87 to top the second-place Galinski by 25 points. Improving from his fourth-place showing in the preliminary round of diving was Navy's Ben Nicholas, who moved up one spot into third place after accruing 284.28 points in the final.

Navy Results
1. Olaf Olson, 360.87; 2. Jon Galinski, 335.28; 3. Ben Nicholas, 284.28

400 Medley Relay
Women
Colgate's foursome of Beverly Walker, Emily Murphy, Erin McGraw and Ashley Bottger smashed the league record by eight seconds with their winning time of 3:39.23. Bucknell placed second (3:46.73) and Navy finished in third place (3:47.24) in times that also broke the previous league standard of 3:47.48. In addition to its third-place showing in the event, the Navy team of Jennie Spencer, Mallory Dietrich, Thuy-Mi Dinh, Allison Ranzau broke the Navy record of 3:47.49.

Navy Results
3. Navy (Jennie Spencer, Mallory Dietrich, Thuy-Mi Dinh, Allison Ranzau), 3:47.24 (Navy record)

Men
Navy slowly was able to pull away from Bucknell in the men's 400 medley relay final and in the end win the event with a Navy and Patriot League record time of 3:15.01. The Mids held a one-quarter second lead heading into the second set of swimmers for the respective teams, but Ari Molina bested his Bison counterpart by well over one second in the breaststroke portion of the race to give the Mids some breathing room. Adam Meyer then hit the water for Navy and put forth a blistering butterfly leg of 46.38 -- the best time among flyers by over three seconds -- to break the race open. Alex Oldenkamp then cruised through the freestyle leg to allow Navy to win the race by 3.6 seconds over the second-place finishing Bison.

Navy Results
1. Navy (Andrew Hetzner, Ari Molina, Adam Meyer, Alex Oldenkamp), 3:15.01 (Navy, P.L., P.L. Champ. record)