CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The Navy men's swimming and diving team placed sixth in the nine-team Janis Hape Dowd Nike Cup that concluded Saturday night at Koury Natatorium on the North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill.

The Mids accrued 845.5 points over the course of the three-day meet to finish 10.5 points in back of fifth-place East Carolina. North Carolina State won the meet with 1,521 total points.

"This meet was very competitive, to say the least," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "We knew going in that nothing would come easy with this meet, yet it still felt as if it was a struggle from the beginning to the end.

"Overall, not only was this the most competitive Nike Cup meet we have been too, it also was a very exciting atmosphere at Koury Natatorium this week."

Highlighting Navy's efforts on the weekend was Tom Duvall (Jr., Durham, N.C.). He first posted a time of 4:20.41 in the 500 free, the No. 8 clocking in school history, to place fourth in the championship final of the event. Duvall then placed second by less than one-quarter of a second in the 200 free with his time of 1:36.69. North Carolina's Simonas Bilis edged Duvall in the final with his clocking of 1:36.43. His third and final individual event of the meet was the 1650 free. Duvall would post a time of 15:44.54 to place 13th in the timed final of the event.

Duvall additionally helped Navy place seventh in the 800 free relay and eighth in the 400 free relay.

Joining Duvall in advancing to a championship final (top eight swimmers in the trial heats) in an individual event were Young Tae Seo (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif.), Jonathan DeBaugh (Jr., Conroe, Texas) and Nate Belch (Fr., Tucson, Ariz).

Seo placed sixth in the 400 individual medley (3:56.64), Debaugh finished in fifth place in the 200 fly (1:46.57) and Belch scored 311.80 points to place fifth in the three-meter springboard diving event.

"We were successful in posting several season best performances," said Roberts of Navy's efforts at the meet. "We also were successful in making some technical improvements that we have been focusing on. However, we have a lot of work to do if we want to be competitive with the other programs we went up against this week. With many takeaways, we are looking forward to the work ahead in order to reach some of our goals for the season.

Navy will close out its fall season Dec. 11 when the Mids compete against Army at West Point, N.Y.

Final Team Standings
1. 1,521 North Carolina State
2. 1,490 North Carolina
3. 1,388.5, Tennessee
4. 1,373 Air Force
5. 855 East Carolina
6. 845.5 Navy
7. 708 Duke
8. 509 Old Dominion
9. 174 Michigan