Feb. 7, 2009
Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Princeton won the last event, the 400 freestyle relay, to edge the Navy men's swimming and diving team 155.5-144.5, Saturday afternoon at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.
Navy (17-2) found itself in a deep hole to Princeton (7-0) right at the start of the meet. The Tigers placed first and second in the 200 medley relay and then finished 1-2-3 in the 800 freestyle to quickly jump out to a 29-5 lead after just two events.
The Mids cut into the deficit slighty when Mac Anthony (Fr., Allentown, Pa.) and Aaron Aiken (So., Ocala, Fla.) placed first and second in the 200 freestyle, then Andrew Hetzner (Jr., Riverside, Calif.) followed with a victory for Navy in the 100 backstroke.
The margin remained pretty much the same through the middle part of the meet as the two teams traded victories for a number of events. Navy then placed first and second in three consecutive events to close to within seven points of the Tigers. Erik Hunter (So., Placerville, Calif.) and Anthony started things off for the Mids in the 400 freestyle, with their performance followed by John Tortorich (Fr., Metarie, La.) and Mark Meyer (Jr., Bethesda, Md.) in the 100 fly. Completing the three-for-three effort was the tandem of Olaf Olson (So., Bainbridge Island, Wash.) and Jon Galinski (Sr., Phoenix, Md.) on the three-meter springboard diving event.
The final individual event of the meet saw Navy's Adam Meyer (Jr., Bethesda, Md.) win the 200 individual medley, with Princeton's Will Schaffer edging Navy's Billy Vey (Sr., Huntersville, N.C.) for second place by 14-hundredths of a second. With the Tigers also placing fourth and fifth in the race, Princeton held a 142.5-140.5 advantage heading into the 400 free relay, which meant whichever team won the relay won the dual meet.
Princeton held a one-half second advantage after the opening 100 meters of the relay, but then Aiken had a great effort for Navy that sliced the deficit in half at the midpoint of the race. Geoff Faux regained the time Princeton had lost and then some on the third leg of the race, however. Though Navy anchor swimmer Alex Oldenkamp (Sr., Coppel, Texas) was able to best his opponent from Princeton by three-tenths of a second, Princeton still won the race by one-half of a second, 3:21.61-3:22.14.
"I couldn't have asked for anything else out of our team today," said Navy head coach Bill Roberts. "To compete against a nationally-ranked opponent on the second of two meets in as many days is a challenge. We then found ourselves down by a big margin right at the start of the meet, but everyone swam and dove great today and we fought our way back into the meet. That alone says a lot about the team we have.
"The 200 freestyle really sparked us. We really needed something to happen at that time and Mac and Aaron did just that."
Navy will now begin preparations for the championship portion of its season, which begins in two weeks when the Mids compete in the Patriot League Championship at Bucknell.
