ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– A strong day of racing at Lejeune Hall concluded with the Navy men's swimming and diving team posting a pair of victories over North Carolina and Penn State and the Navy women's team being edged by the Nittany Lions in the last event of the day.
 
The Navy men's team (11-2) recorded a 161-134 victory over North Carolina (3-1) and a 163.5-131.5 win over Penn State (1-5).  The Navy women's program (9-3) dropped a 156-144 decision to the Nittany Lions (2-4) and a 192-108 meet to the 21^st ranked Tar Heels (4-0).
 
This is the first time the Navy men's team has defeated North Carolina since the teams began competing against each other annually starting with the 2012-13 season.  Additionally, the win by the Mids over the Nittany Lions stopped a two-year losing streak for Navy in the series.
 
"I am very proud of the way this team responded to last week's meet (a 152-148 loss to Princeton that was decided on the last event," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts."
 
"It was a good day for our team," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison.  "We are definitely disappointed in being unable to win one of the meets against power conference programs, but we are excited with how our team raced and competed coming off of a grueling winter training camp.  Hats off to Penn State for stepping up when it needed to against us."
 
The Navy men's team placed first overall in five events on the day and placed second in eight of the 14 individual swimming and diving events.  The first half of the meet saw Luke Johnson (So., Charlotte, N.C.) post a time of 9:11.71 to win the 1000 freestyle by 14-hundredths of a second over Penn State's Michael Daly.  The Mids won the very next event, the 200 free, when Daniel Cook (So., Virginia Beach, Va.) touched the wall in a time of 1:39.12 to give him the victory by six-tenths of a second over teammate Dominick Wallace (So., La Jolla, Calif.).
 
Nick Pfanstiel (Sr., Fishers, Ind.) then notched a time of 1:50.30 to lead a 1-2-3 Navy finish in the 200 butterfly.  Placing second was Micah Oh (So., Kent, Ohio) with Ethan Tack (Fr., Dix Hills, N.Y.) finishing in third place.
 
Wallace would later earn a victory of his own as he won the 200 backstroke by one-quarter of a second with his time of 1:48.34.  Earning the final win of the day for Navy was Ryan Waters (So., Basking Ridge, N.J.), who posted a time of 4:29.46 to win the 500 free by two seconds over Johnson.
 
"We had another excellent week of training and were hopeful that we would see some strong performances today," said Roberts.  "Overall, there was a lot of excellent racing going on throughout the entire meet.  Also, we wanted to take this chance to recognize the class of 2019 in their final dual meet at home.  The entire team wanted to do well for them today."
 
Lauren Barber (Sr., New Wilmington, Pa.) and Martina Thomas (Fr., Fayetteville, Ark.) each won a pair of events for the Navy women's team on Saturday.  Barber recoded a time of 1:01.96 to win the 100 breaststroke by over six-tenths of a second and posted an effort of 2:16.06 to win the 200 breaststroke by 36-hundredths of a second.  Thomas first won the 200 freestyle by 15-hundredths of a second with her time of 1:50.00, then touched the wall first by six-tenths of a second in the 100 free with her clocking of 51.35.
 
Placing second in an event for the Navy women were Delany Walz (Jr., Mays Landing, N.J.) in the 200 fly and Ashley Boddiford (So., Oviedo, Fla.) in the 200 back.  Walz posted a time of 2:00.85 to place second by 14-hundredths of a second and Boddiford was defeated by 3.6 seconds with her time of 2:00.27.
 
"Lauren posted two great wins," said Morrison.  "It also was great to see Martina rise to the challenge in her two races.  And Delaney had a terrific 200 fly.  We are excited by her progress through training camp."
 
The Navy women's team will close its regular season by playing host to Richmond on Feb. 1-2.  The Navy men's team will compete at Columbia on Jan. 25 in its last dual meet of the season, then will take part in the Bison Invite on Feb. 2.