ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– The Navy men's swimming and diving team (10-2) won the first four events to take a lead it would not relinquish in an eventual 171-129 victory over Princeton (5-1), Saturday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.
 
The meet was contested in long course meters (50-meter length pool).
 
"Both teams entered the meet following a similar stretch of training," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts.  "Knowing how close the past few meets have been (Princeton won the last two years by a total of seven points) along with where we both were in training, we anticipated nothing less than another exciting day of racing."
 
After the Mids won the 400 medley relay race to start the meet, Luke Johnson (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) posted a time of 8:14.98 to win the 800 freestyle relay.  The Navy lead continued to grow as Jack Dunworth (Jr., Austin, Texas) won the 200 freestyle (1:53.09) before Dominick Wallace (Jr., La Jolla, Calif.) and Caleb Mauldin (So., Chesapeake, Va.) placed first (58.11) and second (58.46), respectively, in the 100 backstroke. Those results pushed the Navy advantage out to 52-22.
 
"We were fortunate to open the meet the way we did and really felt any of those early races could have gone either way both on paper and in the water," said Roberts. 
 
Princeton would earn its first win of the meet in the 100 breaststroke, but Navy swimmers claimed second, third and fourth places in the race to limit the advantage in the event for the Tigers to 10-9.
 
Ethan Tack (So., Dix Hills, N.Y.) followed by winning the 200 fly for Navy (2:03.61). 
 
Princeton won the ensuing three swimming events, the 50 and 100 freestyle and 200 backstroke, but Navy swimmers placed first and second in each of the next two races.  James Lee (Fr., La Canada, Calif.) and Chris Bondarowicz (Jr., Scotch Plains, N.J.) were the top-two finishers in the 200 breaststroke (2:18.40, 2:19.33, respectively), then Johnson (4:02.10) won and Dunworth (4:03.23) placed second in the 400 freestyle.
 
"We anticipated Princeton would not back down at any point as they were able to close out the first round of events with a win in the 50 free then opened up the second round with two more wins," said Roberts.  "We are very happy with the way our team responded at this point in the meet."
 
Navy's final victory in the swimming events came from Tack as he won the 200 individual medley (2:06.00).
 
"Ethan had one of his best meets of his career today," said Roberts.  "We asked a lot of him with his event lineup along with who he was going to be racing against today.  He has been working incredibly hard this year and very much earned the win in his two individual races."
 
Bradley Buchter (Sr., Hickory, N.C.) had another strong day in the diving events as he won both boards by a combined total of 115 points.  Mids additionally placed second and fifth in the one-meter event and second and third in the three-meter competition.
 
Both Navy teams will compete Jan. 11 at North Carolina.  The Tar Heels are ranked 22^nd nationally in the men's poll and 16^th in the country in the women's voting.