Feb. 4, 2011
Final Stats
COLUMBIA, N.Y. -- Strong depth by the Navy men's swimming and diving team allowed the Midshipmen to post a 171-129 victory over Columbia Friday afternoon at the Percy Uris Natatorium in New York, N.Y. The Mids won eight of the 16 events, recorded 10 second-place finishes and placed first, second and third in three events on the day.
"We were hoping to do a little better overall," said Navy head coach Bill Roberts. "There were some impressive individual efforts, though. Our divers were very good, as was Luke Hoffer (Fr., Chapel Hill, N.C.). But it was a great team win due to all of the second and third-place finishes we were able to come up with."
After Columbia (5-3) topped Navy (10-1) in the opening 200-y medley relay event, Erik Hunter (Sr., Placerville, Calif.) led a 1-2-3 Navy finish in the 1000-y freestyle race. Hunter, who won the 800-m freestyle event last year against the Lions, posted a time of 9:20.17 to top teammate Justin Vagts (So., Crofton, Md.) by nearly eight seconds.
Navy swimmers did not win either of the next two events, the 200-y free and 100-y back, but did place second and third in both contests. That was followed by Hoffer winning the 100-y breaststroke in a time of 58.09, with teammate Sean Murphy (Fr., Hudson, Ohio) placing second. Mark Meyer (Jr., Bethesda, Md.) and Jesse Cohen (Sr., Mountain Lakes, N.J.) would then place first (1:50.13) and second (1:52.68), respectively, in the 200-y fly.
After Mids placed second and third in both sprint freestyle events, Navy swimmers claimed the top-three spots in both the 200-y backstroke and 200-y breaststroke races. Mac Anthony (Jr., Allentown, Pa.) won the former event with a time of 1:50.91, and Hoffer recorded the win in the latter race with a clocking of 2:05.42.
Navy's lone remaining swimming event victory came in the 200-y individual medley race where Steve Dukleth (Jr., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) posted a time of 1:55.58 to win the event by over three seconds.
In the diving events, Olaf Olson (Sr., Bainbridge Island, Wash.) picked up the win for the Mids on the one-meter springboard event with a score of 373.96, while Hayden Jones (Fr., Spring, Texas) won the one-meter board with a score of 334.50. Olson won the three meter by 42 points and Jones won the one meter by 43 points.
Navy will now travel to face Princeton Saturday at 2 p.m.
