Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. ---- The Navy swimming and diving teams totaled 25 event wins on their way to sweeping league foes American, Bucknell and Lafayette Saturday afternoon at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.

The Navy women (6-0) accrued 12 event victories in defeating American (1-4), 188-100, Bucknell (3-3), 170-120, and Lafayette (1-3), 207-80. In the men's meet, the Mids (6-0) tallied 13 wins to defeat the Eagles (1-4), 204-77, the Bison (2-3), 188-102, and the Leopards (1-3), 207-78.

"We are really thrilled with the team's performance today," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "We have been training really hard over the last three weeks, and that showed in today's results. We had been working on some turns and getting down some other specifics, and I think that work really came through and showed up nicely."

"We asked the team for a couple of things going into the meet in terms of preparation and focus," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "I couldn't be happier with the results. It was real solid from beginning to end. This meet is a long day (almost four hours), but they knew about that and didn't fade at the end. They had a lot of energy left at the end and still put up good times late in the meet."

Three members of the Navy women's team won a pair of events on the day. Lauren Barber (So., New Wilmington, Pa.) posted a time of 1:02.83 to win the 100 breaststroke by 2.4 seconds and then won the 500 free by 7.5 seconds with her clocking of 4:51.56. She also swam the breaststroke leg on Navy's winning 200 medley relay team.

"I just tried to swim the relay as best as I could," said Barber. "Today was my first time swimming the 100 breaststroke this year, and I was excited about it because I love swimming it. I was just hoping to swim a good time and try and focus some of the things I had been working on in practice such as keeping my stroke long and finishing my kick. It went really well. I didn't expect to swim the time I did. I just wanted to have fun in the 500 free. We found out five minutes before the race that the football team beat Notre Dame, so we were all super hyped and I just fed off of that. It is an off event for me, so I just wanted to have fun with it.

"I think we as a team all did really well today. A lot of us swam off events, which is fun and unique. We wanted to just swim fast."

Delaney Walz (Fr., Mays Landing, N.J.) earned two wins on the day as she won the 200 fly in a time of 2:02.30 and the 100 fly with a clocking of 56.87. She won the longer fly event by 4.7 seconds and the shorter version of by two-tenths of a second. Those individual event results came after she swam the fly on the winning 200 medley relay team. Completing the list of multiple event winners for the team was Olivia Morrell (Sr., Albuquerque, N.M.), who won both sprint freestyle events. She first recorded a time of 24.02 to win the 50 free by 15-hundredths, then touched the wall in a time of 52.04 to win the 100 free by seven-tenths of a second. Morrell also swam the anchor leg on Navy's winning 200 freestyle relay team.

The Navy men's team saw two of its swimmers recorded a pair of event victories. Brayden Lauffer (So., Apex, N.C.) won the first individual event of the day, the 1000 free, by nearly 10 seconds with his time of 9:31.44, then he closed the individual event portion of the meet by tallying a time of 3:58.83 to win the 400 individual medley by over six seconds. Also winning a pair of events was Ethan Whitaker (Jr., Chesteron, Ind.). He first won the 200 free by four-tenths of a second with his posting of 1:40.14, then he recorded a time of 45.73 to win the 100 free by one-quarter of a second. Whitaker was the No. 2 swimmer in the water on Navy's winning 200 freestyle relay team.

Navy's additional 12 event wins were recorded by 10 different swimmers and two different divers.

Recording a victory for the Navy women were Charlotte Meyer (Sr., Bethesda, Md.), 1000 free (10:24.16); Casey Lawson (So., Spring Lake Heights, N.J.), 200 free (1:52.57); Elyse MacIssac (Fr., Stafford, Va.), 200 breast (2:22.94); and Kaitlyn O'Reilly (Jr., Farmington, Minn.), 400 IM (3:59.02).

Winning events in the first half of the meet for the Navy men were Ethan King (Sr., Collierville, Tenn.), 100 back (50.54); Marlin Brutkiewicz (Sr., Mobile, Ala.), 100 breast (55.01); Nick Pfanstiel (So., Fishers, Ind.), 200 fly (1:50.68); and Michael Bundas (Sr., Saline, Mich.), 50 free (20.97). The second half of the meet saw wins recorded by Michael Velasquz (So., Henderson, Nev.), 200 breast (2:05.91); and Hayes McCullagh (Sr., Charlotte, N.C.), 100 fly (49.98).

"I thought I put together a pretty good race in the 100 back," said King. "It won the heat and was my best time this season.

"We performed really well as a team. We came out ready to race, really set the tone in the first two events and carried that through the remainder of the meet."

"Ethan King had a great meet," said Roberts. "Brayden had two good swims in tough races. Connor Davis (Jr., Shelton, Conn.) had an exceptional meet. I'm missing a lot because everyone really stepped up and was able to either drop time or have a good race and that was what we talked about before the meet.

"I would agree that this may have been our best meet of the season. They have been working really hard. They knew that coming into this meet and there was a chance we could have been a little flat because of it. I'm happy with where they are today. I know how hard they have worked. They have bought into what we are asking and hopefully we can keep it going."

"One of our swimmers, Gus Garies (Jr., Bonner Springs, Kan.), who is typically in the middle of the pack, really showed up and had three outstanding individual performances," said Morrison. "But overall, I think we did pretty well. Having Charlotte being back in the pool and racing again was great. She doesn't swim the 1000 free, so for her to win it was great.

"I'm excited about our team We have a three-day meet coming up, so we have a lot of excitement heading into that and then Army. We still have a lot of little improvements to make, but we feel we are on path."

Earning the two diving event victories for the Mids were Bradley Buchter (Fr., Hickory, N.C.) and Joe Kaszubowski (So., Whitefish Bay, Wis.). Buchter accrued 341 points to win the one-meter board by 37 points, with Kaszubowski scoring 353.20 points to win the three-meter event by 14 points.

Placing second on the one meter and third on the three meter was Nate Belch (Jr., Tucson, Ariz.).

"I'm really excited with how our divers performed today," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald. "It is always interesting to see how they will respond in a quad meet against league competition. It is a great way to see how they handle the pressures similar to what they will find at a league championship meet, and I was really happy with the way they performed. I felt everybody stepped up, had some good dives and took the great practices they have been having into the meet."

"We did really well," said Belch on the Navy divers as a whole. "Rich was keeping us calm and making sure our heads in the game. A lot of our practices have been on maintaining that focus during a meet and I think that showed today.

"I qualified for the zone meet on both boards today. I'm getting better and more consistent. That's a big thing I have been working on lately over the last few weeks. I have good dives here and there, but being more consistent will move me up in the scores."

The Navy men will next travel to Blacksburg, Va., to compete in the Hokie Invite Nov. 17-19, while the Navy women will next compete Nov. 18-20 at the Frank Elm Invite on the Rutgers campus in Piscataway, N.J.