Final Stats

ANNAPOLIS, Md. â€"â€" Lauren Barber (So., New Wilmington, Pa.) and Marlin Brutkiewicz (Sr., Mobile, Ala.) won a combined five events to highlight the efforts of the Navy swimming and diving teams in losses to North Carolina Saturday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. In the men's meet, the Tar Heels (1-3) recorded a 170-130 victory over the Mids (7-1), while the No. 15 North Carolina women's team (1-3) posted a 179-119 win over Navy (7-1).

"I thought we matched up well with North Carolina heading into this meet," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "The guys have been training really well, especially since we got back here (after Christmas). We had some really strong swims. Where we could have been a little better was finishing in some of the early races. It seems Carolina got to the wall just a little stronger. And we always want to work on starts, turns and finishes, the bookends of our sport."

"Overall, we did a great job just getting up and racing," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "It has been awhile since we raced (Dec. 3). To come in and win several events and have at least one of the top-three finishers in all of the events is a great way for us to start the 2017 calendar. We can take a lot of positives away from today, starting with that we really can compete against a team at a level such as North Carolina."

"After taking the past six weeks off from competition," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald, "I'm happy with the way our divers have taken their practices into the meet. We did some really good things today and now we have a good idea of what we need to do moving forward the remainder of the regular season and in our championship meets."

Barber won a trio of individual events on the day. She first claimed the victory in the 100 breaststroke when her clocking of 1:03.51 gave her the win by 1.31 seconds over teammate Elyse MacIssac (Fr., Stafford, Va.). Barber would then win the 200 breaststroke by nearly nine-tenths of a second with her time of 2:16.42. She closed the individual event portion of the meet by recording a time of 2:02.78 to win the 200 individual medley by 2.12 seconds.

"Lauren is training hard and probably more consistently than she has since she has been here," said Morrison. "She has some goals in her mind and whenever we put a challenge in front of her like bringing in a nationally ranked team in North Carolina to race she certainly is one of the leaders on the team to take that challenge to heart and really get after it."

Brutkiewicz nearly matched Barber's performance as he won both breaststroke events before placing third in the 200 IM. His time of 54.72 gave him the victory in the 100 breast by four-tenths of a second, he posted a time of 1:59.69 to win the 200 breast by almost nine-tenths of a second and he touched the wall in the 200 IM with a time of 1:54.24.

Navy's men's team had a strong start to the meet as James Wilson (Fr., Ephrata, Pa.), Brutkiewicz, Ryan Bailey (Sr., Boardman, Ohio) and Connor Davis (Jr., Shelton, Conn.) combined for a time of 1:30.53 to win the 200 medley relay by 1.09 seconds over another Navy foursome. The second-place team of Hayes McCullagh (Sr., Charlotte, N.C.), Harold Choo (Jr., Paramus, N.J.), Zach Piedt (So., Fort Mill, S.C.) and Michael Bundas (Sr., Saline, Mich.) recorded a time of 1:31.62 in their lane.

Recording the first individual event victory on the day for either Navy team was Casey Lawson (So., Spring Lake Heights, N.J.) as she won the 200 freestyle by just under four-tenths of a second with her effort of 1:51.58. Also winning an individual event for the Navy women's team was Delaney Walz (Fr., Mays Landing, N.J.), who won the 200 butterfly by 2.49 seconds with her time of 2:01.78.

Members of the Navy men's team also claimed two additional event victories on the day. Joseph Jaime (Jr., San Antonio, Texas) placed first in the 100 free by almost one second with his time of 44.94, and McCullagh posted a time of 49.65 to win the 100 fly by nine-hundredths of a second.

Navy women's swimmers combined for eight first or second-place showings in the 12 individual events, while the Navy men's team accrued 11 first or second-place efforts on the day.

The Navy teams will continue their respective dual meet seasons one week from today when both compete at Penn State.