March 2, 2014

Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A strong Sunday allowed the Navy swimming and diving program to sweep the team titles at the ECAC Championship that wrapped up today in Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. The Navy women's team overcame a 43-point deficit at the start of the day to tally 536.5 points overall and win by 19 points, while the Navy men's team posted 594.5 points this weekend to win by 99 points.

"It was a good meet for us," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison, who was tabbed as the co-women's swimming coach of the meet along with New Hampshire's Josh Willman. "We fought hard in each and every session. It was a challenge for us to overcome a large deficit today, but we had some great swims this morning to set us up well tonight. The team showed a lot of grit to accomplish what they did today.

"Winning the Patriot League meet last week and coming back to win the ECAC Championship this week is fantastic. The true colors for our team showed through."

"The guys have had really strong efforts since the first day of the meet," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts, who was named as the men's swimming coach of the meet. "It wasn't a perfect meet, but each time they had a swim that was less than what they wanted, they came back, made some corrections and had a great swim that night. To me, watching that process to get better was a great thing to see. And certainly today, and especially tonight, we had really strong efforts to finish out the meet."

The rally by the Navy women's team began in the very first event, the 1650 freestyle. A trio of Mids would place among the top-five swimmers in the event that was contested as a timed final without heats to determine finalists as the other events were. Madeline Bliss (Fr., The Woodlands, Texas) posted a time of 16:57.81 to place second, Haley Nowak (Sr., Manassas, Va.) finished in fourth pace with her time of 17:20.88 and Sam Brennan (Jr., Stillwell, Kan.) placed fifth with her clocking of 17:29.69.

Harvard's Sherry Liu won the event with a time of 16:37.93.

Navy's men's team also had success in the opening event of the day. Alex Nickell (So., Loveland, Colo.) won the timed final in a time of 15:19.65, teammate Shane Condon (Fr., Mechanicsville, Va.) placed fourth with a clocking of 15:42.59 and Sam Ciocco (Fr., Walkersville, Md.) finished in fifth place with a time of 15:43.45.

Navy women's team captain, Lauren Baguley (Sr., Hudsonville, Mich.), would win the next event, the 200 backstroke. Her time of 1:58.83 gave her the victory by eight-tenths of a second over New Hampshire's Katie Mann (1:59.61). Finishing in third place was Baguley's teammate, Konnor Rist (So., Louisville, Ky.), in a time of 2:02.30.

Two Mids also qualified for the championship final of the men's 200 backstroke. Team captain Andrew Golankiewicz (Sr., Union Beach, N.J.) was the top-finishing Navy swimmer with his fifth-place showing of 1:50.37, with Condon placing eighth in a time of 1:53.49.

UMBC's Mohamed Hussein, who would be tabbed as the men's swimmer of the meet, won the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:43.90.

The championship final of the women's 100 freestyle saw Navy's Amy Davis (Fr., Dallas, Texas) finish in sixth place (52.45) and her teammate, Nicole Skaggs (So., San Diego, Calif.), place eighth (52.96). Harvard's Victoria Chan won the final in a time of 49.97.

Brain Sweeney (Sr., Ellicott City, Md.) would be the lone Mid to qualify for the championship final of the men's 100 free. He posted a time of 46.51, while UMBC's Gregfor Spoerleim won the race in a time of 44.40.

Advancing to the championship final of the women's 200 breaststroke was Navy's Nicole Hetzer (Fr., Ronkonkoma, N.Y.). She would post a time of 2:19.04 to finish in fifth place in the race that was won by UMBC's Emily Escobedo with a time of 2:10.05.

The third victory of the night by a Navy swimmer occurred in the men's 200 breaststroke. Marlin Brutkiewicz (Fr., Mobile, Ala.) would post a time of 1:57.50 to win the final by three seconds over Binghamton's Ruan Zorgman (2:00.57).

Helping to secure the team victory for the Navy women's team was Hanna Gillcrist (Fr., Burlington, Ky.) as she placed fifth in the final of the 200 butterfly. She recorded a time of 2:02.06, while New Hampshire's Jenni Roberts won the race in a clocking of 1:56.91.

The final individual event of the meet saw Navy's Bryson Mays (So., Frederiksted, V.I.) place eighth in the men's 200 fly with his time of 1:53.55. Winning the race was Jake Tovey of Pittsburgh with his clocking of 1:49.76.

The two 400 freestyle relay races were decided by a total of 66-hundredths of a second, with Pittsburgh edging Navy in both races.

Pittsburgh would win the women's final with a time of 3:28.12 to narrowly defeat the Mids and their time of 3:28.34, while the Panthers posted a time of 3:02.60 to defeat Navy's clocking of 3:03.04.

Top-10 Teams
Women
1. 536.5 - Navy
2. 517.5 - Pittsburgh
3. 427.5 - Bucknell
4. 410.5 - Marist
5. 285 - Columbia
6. 270 - New Hampshire
7. 181.5 - Princeton
8. 103 - St. Francis
9. 98 - LIU Post
10. 66 - Villanova

Men
1. 594.5 - Navy
2. 495.5 - Binghamton
3. 407.5 - Marist
4. 396.5 - Columbia
5. 386.5 - Bucknell
6. 363 - Pittsburgh
7. 192.5 - Maine
8. 185 - Rider
9. 141 - UMBC
10. 96 - Saint Peter's