Final Stats

NEW YORK, N.Y. â€"â€" The Navy men's swimming and diving team ended its regular season by dropping a 167-131 decision to Columbia Friday afternoon at Uris Pool in New York City. The Mids posted a 9-3 record during their dual meet season, while the Lions have now compiled a 7-2 record.

"Unfortunately the meet didn't go as we had hoped it would," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "We had some guys put together some good swims, and our divers ended the year on a high note. But we couldn't get as many of those strong performances that we needed. Congrats to Columbia for how they performed today."

Navy won five events on the day, with Marlin Brutkiewicz (Sr., Mobile, Ala.) leading the way with two victories. He first posted a time of 55.28 to win the 100 breaststroke by seven-tenths of a second, then he touched the wall in a time of 2:01.96 to lead a 1-2 Navy finish in the 200 breaststroke. Teammate Michal Velazquez (Henderson, Nev.) finished 3.2 seconds in back of Brutkiewicz.

Also winning an event for Navy was Hayes McCullagh (Sr., Charlotte, N.C.), who won the 100 butterfly race in a time of 49.82. McCullagh narrowly edged teammate Ryan Bailey (Sr., Boardman, Ohio) for the victory in the event by eight-hundredths of a second.

Bradley Buchter (Fr., Hickory, N.C.) continued his strong season by winning the one-meter board and placing second in the three-meter contest. Buchter posted a score of 343.05 to win the former by 18 points, then Columbia's Jayden Pantel accrued 2.02 more points than Buchter (330.53) to win the latter.

Navy closed the meet by winning the 400 freestyle relay by three seconds. The foursome of Joseph Jaime (Jr., San Antonio, Texas), James Wilson (Fr., Ephrata, Pa.), Ethan King (Sr., Collierville, Tenn.) and Zach Piedt (So., Fort Mill, S.C.) combined to win the race in a time of 3:03.37.

Navy will now set its sights on the Patriot League Championship, Feb. 18-21 in Lewisburg, Pa.