Feb. 21, 2016 Final Stats
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Leading from the very first events of the week, the Navy swimming and diving teams closed out an impressive Patriot League Championship with another strong performance Saturday night at
Lejeune Hall to sweep the team titles for the fifth year in a row. Navy's women's team totaled 958.5 points and the men's squad tallied 951.5 points to claim the respective team titles.
Army West Point finished in second place in both competitions with scores of 556 for the women and 650 for the men.
For the Navy women's team, it marked the program's fifth crown in a row, sixth in the last seven years and a league-best 15th in its 25 years as a league member.
Navy's men's team has now won the league championship in each of the 13 years it has vied for the title. Navy's run of 13 titles in a row ranks second in league history for the most consecutive championships won by a program (Army West Point's men's outdoor track and field team won 16 in a row from 1992-2007).
"Every year is different," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts on winning 13-straight league meets. "Every team is a different team even though technically three-quarters of the guys stay the same. It is always a different team. It takes a lot to win a conference championship. I think back to all of the steps and things that have gone into getting to this, and it really is just one at a time."
"This is not automatic," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "We put a lot of work into this. We start right after spring break figuring out how we can compete for a championship again. The team has been instilled by their predecessors on this is how you do it. We adjust and tweak a few things every year. Fortunately we have stayed competitive and recruit strong student-athletes and Midshipmen and we keep going fast."
Winning the team titles led to a slew of individual awards being earned by the Mids. Kenzie Margroum was named the league's women's swimmer of the meet, Lauren Barber was tabbed as the women's rookie of the meet, Julie Jesse earned the women's diver-of-the-meet award and Joe Kaszubowski received garnered the men's diver-of-the-meet laurel. Also, Morrison was selected as the women's swimming coach of the meet, Roberts won the men's swimming coach-of-the-meet award and Rich MacDonald was named as the diving coach of the meet.
"It was fantastic," said Morrison on the meet. "Probably one of our best championships. Every time you have a chance to win you are excited to put up the times and the efforts from all our athletes from prelims and finals, just coming to give all of their heart and soul into the team. It was a lot of fun for three and a half days.
"Our guys are always outstanding at this meet. They always bring a lot of energy, certainly a lot of fast swimming. It is great to be in a program that just has great support from both teams, know that both have the mission to be as excellent as you can be as a team and student-athletes. While we are separate teams, we have the same goals and want to do the best we can against the best teams in the country. Right now we are feeding off each other, and that's great."
"It is hard to be disappointed with anything this week," said Roberts. "The guys were a very cohesive unit. This meet is something we have targeted for 11 months and 29 days. I'm kind of at a loss for words, but I am really happy with how they performed. There are always some ups and downs at a championship meet for three and a half days. The guys showed a lot of character and perseverance this week. It is never going to be perfect, but I am proud of how they finished things off. There was a lot of excitement and energy with every race tonight.
"Our women's team was amazing. That was as dominant of a performance as I can recall with a women's team. They were just really, really good, both points wise and also their swims. Their times kept getting better and better from morning to night. It is a really powerful team."
"Looking back over the weekend I can't believe how well they dove and how well all of their hard work and training paid off," said MacDonald of his divers. "As a coach, you want that because you know how hard they work day in and day out.
"It was spectacular for Julie and Joe to earn their awards. They both are such competitors. Joe only being a freshman, was pretty awesome. Julie, ever since I have been coaching her, she seems to always step up when the pressure is the hardest."
Saturday night began with Navy's Jenny Smith (16:51.20) placing sixth and Sara Lopez (16:53.81) seventh in the women's 1650 freestyle timed final. In the men's edition of the event, Noah Martin posted a time of 15:09.22 to win the race by over seven seconds. Teammate Kenneth Parker placed fourth with a clocking of 15:29.92, followed by Alex Nickell in fifth place in a time of 15:33.59.
"The mile," said Roberts, " started things off for us with Noah, Alex and Kenny. Noah really took control from the start and swam his own race."
Bucknell's Emma Levendoski recorded her eighth win in eight career backstroke events when her time of 1:56.90 gave her the 200 backstroke title by 1.20 seconds. Navy swimmers followed in second, Kaitlyn O'Reilly (1:58.10); third, Emily Ranzau (1:58.55); and fourth place, Ally Warnimont (1:59.29), with Casey Lawson also finishing in sixth place (2:009.38).
"The backstroke was a fantastic event for us," said Morrison. "We had four in the final and to go two-three-four against a great swimmer in Levendoski, one of the best the league has ever seen, was a fantastic way for us to start the big events."
A great race took place in the men's final of the 200 back. Bucknell's Chris Devlin and Navy's David Carlson were neck and neck the entire way before Devlin edged Carlson by two-tenths of second. Devlin posted a time of 1:43.14, with Carlson touching the wall in a time of 1:43.34.
"David's 200 backstroke was very special," said Roberts. "Good race. Win or get second place, it was a fantastic race by both of those guys with each under the conference record. Hard to critique that race as it was pretty awesome."
Margroum broke the league (49.49), meet (49.87) and school (49.57) records during the trial heats of the 100 freestyle to enter the evening session as the favorite. She would make her seeding hold up at night in bettering her own mark with a winning time of 49.30 to win the championship final. Navy's previous record holder, Maddi Thompson, finished second to Margroum with a time of 49.87.
"Maddi is a stalwart in the freestyle, always placing among the top two," said Morrison. "Then you have Kenzie who is still gaining confidence and she goes a personal best and breaks the league record."
The men's final of the 100 freestyle included four Mids and two swimmers from Army West Point. Chris Szekely successfully defended his title from last year as he gave the Black Knights the title with a winning time of 44.02. Joseph Jaime (44.14) and Tom Duvall (44.15) placed second and third, respectively, for the Mids, with teammates Connor Davis (44.99) and Zach Piedt (45.30) finishing in sixth and seventh place, respectively.
"The 100 free was pretty exciting," said Roberts. "I think the building knew that was going to be a big one. Hat's off to Chris from Army. A veteran swimmer. Any one of those three guys could have hit it at the finish. He came out on top."
Barber would lead a 1-2 Navy finish in the 200 breaststroke with a Navy, league and meet record winning time of 2:10.53. That broke the previous standards of 2:10.67 set Navy's Laura Gorinski six years ago. Finishing second to her teammate was Ellen Bradford with a time of 2:13.87.
"Kenzie really set things up well for us in the breaststroke with her freestyle performance," said Morrison. "Our three breaststrokers all had best times, so you can't complain about that. Lauren breaks the school and meet record and certainly puts herself in position to make the NCAAs. And Ellen, what a fantastic race."
Navy also claimed the crown in the 200 breaststroke as Marlin Brutkiewicz set a new meet record in winning the event in a time of 1:55.48. Joining him in the final were teammates Brayden Lauffer in fifth place (2:00.47) and Morgan De Jong in sixth place (2:00.64).
"Marlin battled back from disappointment Friday (second in the 100 breast), and even a little disappointment this morning," said Roberts. "I don't think he was satisfied with that swim. He just stepped up and dug down deep. We are happy with the end result, that's for sure. And also Brayden and Morgan working their way into the final was pretty special, too."
Rachael Dudley closed out her strong career by breaking the Navy, league and meet record in winning the 200 butterfly final. Her posting of 1:57.76 bettered the three-year old mark of 1:58.40 held by Rheanna Vaughn. She had plenty of company in the final as Hanna Gillcrist placed third (2:00.30) and Lauren Greenberg finished in fourth place (2:01.25).
"Rachael finishing the individual races by winning the event and breaking the records was real special," said Morrison. "That was her best time by over a second. She had an incredible meet. It was great to see her unload and leave it all in the pool in her last race."
Also finishing his individual event career in style for Navy was men's team captain Jonathan Debaugh as he won the 200 fly final in a time of 1:44.21. Teammate Hayes McCullagh finished second to Debaugh in a clocking of 1:46.40.
"The 200 fly was pretty awesome," said Roberts. "Ryan Bailey won the B final in an amazing time (1:47.71), then Hayes and Jon, what they did in that event was a great statement to end the individual portion of tonight."
Navy advanced a pair of divers into the championship final of the women's three-meter event. Jesse accrued 262.05 points to win the final, with teammate Amanda Zerphy taking second with a score of 253.80. Zerphy finished six points ahead of the third-place entrant.
"Our women had a great evening," said MacDonald. "After being second and third in prelims in a very tight match ---- there were only about 20 points separating the lead from eighth place ---- neither of them missed a dive. It was great to watch."
That left only the 400 freestyle relay events, both of which were won by Navy in record breaking fashion. The women's team of Margroum ---- who broke her own 100 free records with a time of 49.22 in leading off the event ---- Warnimont, Barber and Thompson attained a time of 3:18.10 to win the final by nearly three seconds and break the Navy (3:20.58), league and meet (3:20.55, Colgate, 2009) and pool (3:21.60, Navy, December, 2015) records. The Navy men's foursome of Joseph Jaime, Davis, Piedt and Duvall led from start to finish in winning their final in a time of 2:54.92. That beat the remainder of the field by 1.5 seconds and improved upon the Navy, league and meet record of 2:56.27 set by the Mids in 2012.
"The final really summed up the meet," said Morrison. "We led from the beginning all the way to the end. Kenzie leading off, she just went her best time in the 100 free, and to do that at the end of the meet when you are most tired is tough, then she leads off by breaking her records again. Then Ally went a best time, Lauren followed with a best time and you have Maddi who has been our best and most consistent anchor the whole year. Just fantastic to see her put her hand on the wall in a substantial record was great to break the 3:20 mark. We have been trying to do that for years. It was a great relay."
"We knew on paper we had a solid relay," said Roberts. "But we have been in this position before where we could have done something better and we didn't."
Women's Final Standings
1. 958.5-Navy
2. 556-Army West Point
3. 537.5-Boston
4. 419-Bucknell
5. 404-Lehigh
6. 206-Colgate
7. 187-Loyola
8. 167-American
9. 110-Lafayette
10. 84-American
Men's Final Standings
1. 951.5-Navy
2. 650-Army West Point
3. 487.5-Boston
4. 469-Bucknell
5. 300.5-Loyola
6. 250-Lehigh
7. 172.5-Colgate
8. 157-Lafayette
9. 100-Holy Cross
10. 99-American
