LEWISBURG, Pa. –– Five events were held on the first night of the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championship Wednesday at Kinney Natatorium in Lewisburg, Pa., and the Navy teams combined to win each of the five events to take early leads at the four-day meet.
 
"It was a strong first day for us," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts.  "The preparation and efforts for tonight were excellent throughout our lineup.  I'm really happy with the work they did to get to tonight and being able to see that work demonstrated.  We always want to learn from every session, and we saw some lessons tonight that we will look to apply over the next few days."
 
"We're really happy with coming away with wins in the first two events," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison.  "We knew the medley relay was going to be close, so it was nice to win that one.  Very pleased with the 800 free relay time and being able to break the league record by three seconds.  That was big."
 
"What a great way to start off the meet," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald.  "I am so proud of our guys being able to sweep the top-three placings.  What I was more impressed with, however, was that no one missed a dive either in the afternoon or evening sessions.  They were all so consistent.  Jake Hedrick (So., Hummelstown, Pa.) and Patrick Carter (So., West Islip, N.Y.) each recorded personal-best scores.  We are looking forward to Thursday when our women start to compete.
 
200 Medley Relay – Women
1^st / 1:40.17 (new pool record / 1:40.59)
This was a close race from start to finish.  Navy led Army by just seven-hundredths of a second after Brooke West's (Fr., River Forest, Ill.) opening backstroke leg, then Lauren Barber (Sr., New Wilmington, Pa.) gave the Mids a 44-hundredths lead after the breaststroke leg.  Delaney Walz (Jr., Mays Landing, N.J.) added another two-tenths of a second to the lead with her 50-yard butterfly leg.  Sarah Sorensen (Fr., Kennesaw, Ga.) posted the fastest freestyle stroke by almost four-tenths of a second and touched the wall in a time of 1:40.17 to win the race by just under one second over Army and establish a new pool record.
 
200 Medley Relay – Men
1^st / 1:27.35 (new pool record / 1:27.97)
James Wilson (Jr., Ephrata, Pa.) staked the Mids to an early lead of eight-tenths of a second after the backstroke leg.  Michael Velazquez (Sr., Henderson, Nev.) gave up about one-quarter of a second of that lead after the breaststroke portion, but it was back to eight-tenths when Zach Piedt (Sr., Fort Mill, S.C.) exited the water following the butterfly leg.  Vince Everman (Sr., Philadelphia, Pa.) then extended the margin out to a full second with his effort in the 50 yards of freestyle swimming.  The Mids would win the race in a new pool record time of 1:27.35 and defeat second-place Army's time of 1:28.33.
 
3-Meter Diving – Men
1^st – Bradley Buchter (388.50); 2^nd – Patrick Carter (366.70); 3^rd – Jake Hedrick (354.25).
Navy had the top-three divers in the afternoon session of preliminary dives, and that continued after the evening's final of six dives each.  Bradley Buchter (Jr., Hickory, N.C.) posted a score of 388.50 at night to win his fifth title at the meet in five attempts.  He was followed in second place by teammate Carter's score of 366.70, with fellow Mid Hedrick tallying 354.25 points to finish in third place.
 
Hedrick's third-place score was 45 points clear of the fourth-place finisher in the final.
 
800 Freestyle Relay – Women
1^st / 7:06.23 (new Navy, league, meet record / 7:09.61; new pool record / 7:11.29)
Martina Thomas (Fr., Fayetteville, Ark.) led off for the Mids with a time of 1:45.06, which gave the Mids a one-second advantage and broke her own Navy and Patriot League record of 1:45.60.  Erin Scudder (Jr., Western Springs, Ill.) followed and she built a three-second advantage for Casey Lawson (Sr., Spring Lake Heights, N.J.).  Lawson more than doubled the lead out to seven seconds with her clocking of 1:48.41.  Barber entered the water last and posted a time that was five seconds faster than any other anchor swimmer.  Navy's overall time of 7:06.23 gave them a nearly 12-second cushion over the rest of the field and allowed them to smash the Navy, league and meet record by three seconds and the pool record by five seconds.
 
800 Freestyle Relay – Men

1st / 6:26.13 (new pool record / 6:28.20)

Boston U., Navy and Army all finished the opening leg of the race within eight-tenths of a second of one another, with the Terriers narrowly in front of the Mids.  The teams were even closer at the halfway point of the race as the margin from first to third was 36-hundredths of a second.  Army had taken the lead by 31-hundredths of a second over Navy through 400 yards.  Ryan Waters (So., Basking Ridge, N.J.) was the third Mid to enter the water and he took over first place by one one-hundredth of a second after 450 yards, then held a one-half of a second lead after 500 yards.  When he climbed out of the pool after 600 yards, the Mids were in front but by only 42-hundredths of a second.  Dominick Wallace (So., La Jolla, Calif.) anchored the relay and he posted the fastest 50, 100, 150 and 200-yard clockings of any relay swimmer to make Navy's final 4.17-second margin of victory belie just how close the majority of the race was.  In the end, the Mids broke the pool record by over two seconds with their effort of 6:26.13.
 
Competition continues with swimming trial heats Thursday at 10 a.m., with diving trials beginning at 1 p.m. and the session of finals for both swimming and diving starting at 6 p.m.
 
Women's Team Scores
80 – Navy
68 – Bucknell
60 – Lehigh
60 – Boston U.
50 – Holy Cross
50 – Colgate
46 – American
36 – Lafayette
34 – Army
28 - Loyola
 
Men's Team Scores
133 – Navy
104 – Army
85 – Lehigh
80 – Bucknell
70 - Boston U.
58 – Loyola
54 – American
44 – Lafayette
36 – Colgate
28 – Holy Cross