ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– Dean Nguyen (Jr., Seattle, Wash.) won both breaststroke events for the Navy men's swimming and diving team (5-2) during a 175-125 loss to No. 20 Auburn (2-0), Saturday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. 
 
"Going into the meet," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts, "we knew nothing would come easy today in any event, which proved to be the case.  Though we were hoping to be a little more competitive in the final score, we walked out of Lejeune Hall today having gained a really valuable experience against a nationally ranked opponent.  Certainly give a lot of credit to all competitors today as both teams showed a lot of fight from beginning to end."
 
The Tigers began the meet by recording wins in the first four races of the day.  Nguyen broke the streak with his effort of 55.28 in the 100 breaststroke.  That gave him the victory by nearly seven-tenths of a second. 
 
Nguyen's teammate, Micah Oh (Jr., Kent, Ohio) followed by posting a win in the 200 butterfly.  Oh recorded a time of 1:49.39 to win the race by 1.33 seconds over teammate Ethan Tack (So., Dix Hills, N.Y.).
 
Later in the meet, Nguyen tallied a time of 2:00.98 in the 200 breaststroke, an effort that gave him the victory by 1.7 seconds.
 
Just as earlier in the meet, Navy notched a win in the event immediately following Nguyen's victory.  This time, Ryan Waters (Jr., Basking Ridge, N.J.) would win the 500 freestyle with his time of 4:30.52.  He won the event by more than a body length and by a time of 1.77 seconds. 
 
The race of the day was event No. 13, the 200 individual medley, and featured Navy's Tack edging Auburn's Brogan Davis for the victory.  Tack out-touched Davis by seven-hundredths of a second (1:51.01-1:51.08) to earn the win.
 
Completing the list of Navy event winners was Bradley Buchter (Sr., Hickory, N.C.) as he scored 401.18 points to win the three-meter diving board by 7.38 points over Auburn's Conner Pruitt.  Earlier in the meet, Pruitt scored 372.53 points on the one-meter board to ever-so-slightly better Butcher's total of 372.30 points.
 
"I was really pleased with how our team never backed down," said Roberts.  "If you look at an event like the 200 individual medley, it was the final individual event of the meet and there were several great races within the event taking place across the pool between Auburn and Navy.  As mentioned before, these are valuable experiences that we definitely help us improve."
 
Both Navy teams will play host to American, Bucknell and Lafayette at noon on Saturday, Nov. 9.