Final Stats

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. â€"â€" The Navy men's swimming and diving team split a pair of meets Saturday at Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill, N.C., while the Navy women's squad dropped a pair of decisions at the venue. The Navy men's team (9-2) defeated Penn State (1-7), 189-111, and lost to North Carolina (3-3), 165.5-129.5, and the Navy women (8-2) lost to both the 21st-ranked Nittany Lions (2-6), 181-118, and the Tar Heels (4-2), 215-80.

"I am really happy with how we approached the meet," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "We prepared well and were ready to race and dive today. It was going to be a tough meet, especially with it being on the road. After our results against these teams last year (loses to both), we are happy to get the win against Penn State and with how we competed against North Carolina."

"Our times were consistently better today than they have been at this meet in the last few years," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "That's good to see after our tough winter training. We knew we were going to be challenged by these two very good teams we went up against today. We had a good approach to each event. I am pleased with where we our times are at for this time of year."

The Navy men placed first overall in four events on the day. Luke Johnson (Fr., Charlotte, N.C.) started things off with a come from behind victory in the 1000 freestyle. His time of 9:26.14 allowed him to edge North Carolina's Nick Palmer by six-tenths of a second. Joseph Jaime (Sr., San Antonio, Texas) also won a very close event, the 200 freestyle. He posted a time of 1:39.48 to win the race by 14-hundredths of a second over North Carolina's Dmitrious Dimitriou.

Navy's additional two victories were by margins that were a little bit more comfortable. Brayden Lauffer (Jr., Apex, N.C.) recorded a nearly four-second victory in the 400 individual medley with his time of 3:58.08, and Bradley Buchter (So., Hickory, N.C.) totaled 348.00 points to win the one-meter diving board by 40 points.

Jaime would also place second in the 100 free with his time of 45.45. Additional second-place finishes were posted by James Wilson (So., Ephrata, Pa.) in the 200 free (49.56), Michael Velazquez (Jr., Henderson, Nev.) in the 200 breast (2:03.49) and Navy's 400 freestyle relay team.

The top placing Mid in the women's portion of the meet was Kaitlyn O'Reilly (Sr., Farmington, Minn.) with her second-place finish in the 400 individual medley with her time of 4:26.77. Teammate Delaney Walz (So., Mays Landing, N.J.) placed third in both the 100 and 200 fly (56.57, 2:03.93) events, and Casey Lawson (So., Spring Lake Heights, N.J.) finished in third place in the 200 freestyle (1:50.04).

The Navy women's team will close the dual meet portion of its season Jan. 20 when it plays host to Yale, while the Navy men's team will do the same when it welcomes Columbia to Lejeune Hall on Jan. 26.