Jan. 23, 2010
Final Stats
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Navy swimming and diving teams remained undefeated on the season as both programs posted wins over Yale Saturday at the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool in New Haven, Conn. A victory in the final event of the meet gave the Navy women a 151-149 win over the Bulldogs, while the Navy men won a 152-142 decision.
The Navy women's team (10-0) started the meet off strong by winning the opening three events from Yale (6-1). After the Mids won the 200 medley relay, Tara Chapmon (Sr., Virginia Beach, Va.) won the 1000 freestyle by less than one second (10:11.83) and the 200 free by a little more than two seconds (1:47.74). Emily Dominski and Susan Kim won the 100 back (58.16) and 100 breast (1:02.97) for Yale before Navy's Toni Paruso (Fr., Savannah, Ga.) won the 200 fly in a time of 2:03.30 and Thuy-Mi Dinh (Sr., Anaheim, Calif.) recorded a time of 23.25 to win the 50 free by one second.
After Yale's Paige Meneses won the one-meter springboard diving event (270.29) and teammate Alex Forrester won the 100 free (50.55), Navy's Kellie Darmody (Fr., Charlotte, N.C.) picked up the win in the 200 backstroke (2:04.44). Kim recorded her second win of the day in 200 breaststroke for the Bulldogs (2:13.47), then Chapmon won the 500 free (4:57.04). Paruso promptly joined the group of multiple event winners in the meet as she posted a time of 55.90 to win the 100 fly.
Yale picked up wins in the final two individual events of the day -- Rachel Rosenberg, three-meter diving, 285.82; Kim, 200 individual medley, 2:05.64 -- to take a 143-140 lead heading into the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay. Navy needed to win the race in order to defeat Yale for the second consecutive season and for the first time in series history in New Haven.
When the opening swimmers climbed out of the pool -- Forrester for Yale, Dinh for Navy -- the Bulldogs held a lead of 1.8 seconds over the Mids. Yale's Ileana Lucos then extended the advantage for the Bulldogs by four-hundredths of a second with her time over that of Daphne Williams (Fr., Lebanon, Ill.). Navy's third swimmer, Allison Ranzau (Jr., Alpharetta, Ga.), had a great third swim against Joan Weaver. Ranzau shaved nearly one second off of the Navy deficit to pull the Mids to within 0.86 of a second of the Bulldogs (2:34.06-2:35.13) as the final swimmers dove into the pool. Swimming for Navy would be Chapmon, while Cynthia Tsay was the anchor swimmer for the Bulldogs.
When the swimmers had completed 50 yards of their 100-yard leg, Chapmon had cut the deficit in half and Navy now trailed by an overall time of 2:58.39-2:58.80. Chapmon quickly motored through Tsay and would eventually touch the wall nearly 1.5 seconds in front of her competitor to give Navy a dramatic overall event victory of 3:24.91-3:25.20.
With a time of 49.78, Chapmon was the lone swimmer in the relay to post a time under 50 seconds.
"When you come away with a victory like this, you often have great individual performances like Tara had, but it is never one swimmer of diver who made the difference," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "It came down to each individual striving and giving their all to chase down the person in front of them in order to help us scratch out every possible point that we could from the first through the last event."
Whereas the Navy women's team needed a late rally to come away with the win, the Navy men's team (12-0) slowly pulled away from Yale (3-4) to end a two-meet losing skid in New Haven to the Bulldogs.
After Yale won the opening 200 medley relay, Erik Hunter (Sr., Placerville, Calif.) won the 1000 freestyle (9:23.36) for the Mids and teammate Mac Anthony (So., Allentown, Pa.) won the 200 free (1:40.05). Yale's Mike Dominski won the 100 back (52.17), but Andrew Utama (Sr., Walnut Creek, Calif.) and Adam Meyer (Sr., Bethesda, Md.) followed with wins in the 100 breast (58.54) and 200 fly (1:48.53) for Navy.
The two teams would trade victories in the next several events. Yale's Goksu Bicer won the 50 free (21.59) and Tom Robinson won the 200 backstroke (1:50.50), while Olaf Olson (Jr., Bainbridge Island, Wash.) and Anthony won the one-meter springboard (315.74) and 100 free (46.15), respectively, for the Mids.
The next event saw Navy's Pete Donahue (Jr., Washington, D.C.) win and Utama place second in the 200 breaststroke with times of 2:06.47 and 2:09.07. Hunter then posted his second win of the day as his time of 4:34.31 gave him a five-second win in the 500 freestyle. Bicer too tallied his second win of the day, as he won the 100 fly in a time of 50.08, then Yale's Colton Staab accrued a score of 341.85 to win the three-meter diving event.
Meyer would post a time of 1:49.94 to win the 200 individual medley race by an impressive eight seconds, then Navy won the 400 free relay with a time of 3:06.58 to close out the meet.
"It was a total team effort today," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "I was pleased with the way everyone competed this afternoon.
"Also, this is the last season, and one of the last meets for Yale head coach Frank Keefe. He is retiring after leading Yale for the last 27 years. It has been a pleasure and a privilege for me to know him and compete against him in my 10 years of being involved with Navy swimming."
The Navy teams will be home this coming Friday afternoon to face Virginia (4 p.m.) before the Mids play host to the Navy Invitational Saturday (12 Noon).
