PISCATAWAY, N.J. - The Navy women's swimming and diving team made their inaugural trip to the Frank Elm Invite, hosted this weekend by Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., a productive one as the Mids placed second in the field of 12 teams. Navy accrued 1,284 points over the three days to finish behind Northeastern's winning score of 1,533 points.

Among the additional teams competing at the meet were Idaho, James Madison and Columbia.

"Overall, it was a very good meet for us," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "We were able to get a lot of racing in, which was one of our goals. And we showed a lot of fight in finishing second against strong competition despite not entering any divers into the meet."

The Mids stood in second place after day one of the meet after scoring 434 points on Friday. Northeastern led the meet after the totaling 506 points on the opening day of competition.

After the Mids placed third in the 200 freestyle relay, Jenny Smith (Fr., Columbus, Ohio) recorded a time of 4:54.32 to win the 500 freestyle final. That clocking gave her the victory by eight-hundredths of a second over Wagner's Grace Baird.

Navy would advance a pair of swimmers into the championship final of the remaining two individual events contested on the day, the 200 individual medley and the 50 freestyle. Charlotte Meyer (So., Bethesda, Md.) finished in third place (2:02.17) and Katie O'Reilly (Fr., Farmington, Minn.) placed eighth (2:06.35) in the former event, while Maddi Thompson (23.55) placed third (Jr., Jersey Shore, Pa.) and Kenzie Margroum (So., Fort Thomas, Ky.) touched the wall in fourth place (23.65) in the latter.

Navy remained in second after the second day with its total score of 897 points.

Meyer and Smith began Saturday night's finals session by placed second (4:19.65) and sixth (4:23.93), respectively, in the 400 individual medley. Meyer's time established a new Navy record as it bettered the previous standard of 4:20.80 set by Laura Gorinski four years and three days ago. Rachael Dudley (Jr., Hoschton, Ga.) followed by finishing fifth in the 100 fly, Thompson placed fourth (1:52.97) and Annabel Tomes (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) had a sixth-place showing (1:53.41) in the 200 free before Ellen Bradford (Jr., Knoxville, Tenn.) finished eighth (1:05.44) in the 100 breaststroke.

Saturday night concluded with Navy winning the 800 freestyle relay in a time of 7:28.90. Margroum, Smith, Meyer and Thompson combined to give the Mids the victory by 1.02 seconds over second-place Idaho.

The final day of the meet started with Dudley placing second (16:46.07) and Smith placing third (16:55.37) in the 1650 freestyle timed final that was held mid-afternoon. The first event of the full session of finals saw Meyer and O'Reilly place fifth (2:03.78) and eighth (2:04.46), respectively, in the 200 backstroke.

Navy's most productive final of the entire meet was the next one to be contested, the 100 free, as a trio of Mids qualified for it. Thompson very nearly won the race as her time of 51.31 placed her second behind Idaho's Rachel Millett's clocking of 51.06. Joining Thompson in the final were teammates Brianna Bilunas (Sr., Omaha, Neb.) in sixth place (52.32) and Molly Kuenstler (Fr., Villa Park, Ill.) in eighth (52.55).

Bradford closed out Navy's entries into championship finals during the weekend with her sixth-place showing (2:19.74) in the 200 breaststroke. The final event of the night saw the Mids place fourth in the 400 freestyle relay.

Navy will next take to the pool Dec. 11 when the Mids face Army in West Point, N.Y.

"We're in a pretty good spot right now for this time of year," said Morrison. "We have work to do still, but each and every week we try to improve and get ready for our next competition, whomever that may be."

Final Team Standings
1. Northeastern, 1,533
2. Navy, 1,284
3. Rutgers, 1,085
4. Idaho, 991
5. Wagner, 963
6. Long Island Univ.-Post, 797
7. Columbia, 661.5
8. James Madison, 657
9. Central Connecticut State, 582
10. New Hampshire, 389.5
11. Sacred Heart, 68
12. College of New Jersey, 60