Final Stats

Women's Swimming & Diving North Carolina def. Navy, 175-117

Men's Swimming & Diving North Carolina def. Navy, 173-127 CHAPEL HILL, N.C. â€" The Navy swimming and diving teams suffered their first losses of the season Saturday as both squads lost to North Carolina at Khoury Natatorium in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Tar Heels won the women's meet by the count of 175-117 and the men's dual by a final score of 173-127.

Both Navy teams now have records of 8-1 this season, the North Carolina men's team improved its mark to 5-2 and its women's squad is now 6-1 on the year.

"I'm proud of our team's effort," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "We have been battling some illnesses, which only added to the challenge of a meet coming right after our training period and against a team such as North Carolina. But we approached the challenges well and I couldn't have asked for much more out of our guys."

Navy's men's team recorded six victories on the day including in four of the first six events contested. The Mids claimed first and second place in the 200 medley relay with times of 1:30.29 and 1:32.52, respectively. Navy then went 1-2 in the 1000 freestyle event as Alex Nickell (Sr., Loveland, Colo.) touched the wall in a winning time of 9:20.95 and Noah Martin (Sr., San Tan Valley, Ariz.) followed in second with a clocking of 9:23.89.

After the Tar Heels placed first and second in the 200 freestyle, David Carlson (Sr., Brielle, N.J.) placed first by one second in the 100 backstroke (49.98). The Mids nearly won the next event, the 100 breaststroke, but Marlin Brutkiewicz (Jr., Mobile, Ala.), who finished first, was disqualified for a false start.

Navy rebounded to win the 200 fly when Jonathan Debaugh (Sr., Conroe, Texas) recorded a time of 1:47.20 to win by 1.03 seconds.

Carlson would go on to win the 200 backstroke by 1.7 seconds with his time of 1:48.36 and Brutkiewicz remained undefeated in the 200 breaststroke this season with a time of 2:00.85 that gave him the victory by nearly 2.5 seconds.

"Our times were satisfying after our winter training," said Roberts, "but it showed they still have more work to do.

"David is continuing to put together strong swims this season. He it doing a lot of hard work and that effort is being rewarded."

Navy's women's team recorded two victories and four second-place finishes in the individual event portion of the meet. Notching wins for the Mids were Jenny Smith (So., Columbus, Ohio) in the 1000 freestyle (10:11.33) and Lauren Barber (Fr., New Wilmington, Pa.) in the 100 breaststroke (1:03.33). Smith would place second in the 500 free (4:59.00), Barber was the runner-up in the 200 breast (2:17.81) and 200 individual medley (2:04.43) and Kenzie Margroum (Jr., Fort Thomas, Ky.) took second place in the 200 breast (51.89).

"I was real pleased with our overall effort today," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "Facing a team that will place in the top 20 at the NCAAs is a real challenge, but we didn't back down at all. We kept getting up there and racing and attacking.

"I'm happy with the times we recorded coming after our training period. We are well ahead of where we have been at this time in past seasons. We want to continue at that pace and not take a step back."

"The placings were not what we had hoped for, but our divers dove really well today," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald. "Carolina has one of the strongest diving teams in the ACC. Our men were right there with them the whole meet, and both our men and women competed very well. We had a handful of personal best scores, so you can't ask for much better than that. I am looking forward to seeing what we can do in two weeks against another major program."

Navy's teams will be off from competition until playing host to Loyola on Jan. 22 and Penn State on Jan. 23.