ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy swimming and diving teams split meets with George Washington Saturday afternoon at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.  The Mids (5-2) defeated the Revolutionaries (3-2) by the score of 157-135 in the men's meet and George Washington (4-1) recorded a 158-142 victory over the Navy women's team (4-3).

The Navy men's team has won 20-straight Patriot League titles and the school's women's team has won the last 12 league crowns.  George Washington has won the men's Atlantic 10 Conference title in each of the last four years and has earned seven titles in eight seasons, while the Revolutionaries have won the women's conference meet in three-straight seasons and have posted first-place finishes at the meet four times in the last five years.

"After a week off from competition," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts, "it was great to host a dual meet this weekend.  George Washington entered this meet with some terrific performances so far this season, so we were looking forward to this opportunity to race and compete."

"Congratulations to George Washington on their hard-fought win," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison.  "We were very pleased with some of the grit our team displayed.  It was good to see our depth step up and keep us in the meet."

Men's Meet
Navy quickly took control of the meet as it won the opening five events to take a 71-22 lead.  The Mids won the 400 medley relay, then Dean Jones placed first in the 1000 free with a time of 9:18.75.  That was followed by a 1-2-3 finish for Navy in the 200 free.  Everet Andrew won the race in a time of 1:38.63, Conor Cranfield placed second with his effort of 1:39.75 and Gio Aguirre completed the sweep with a clocking of 1:40.01.

Ben Irwin (49.35) and Aaron Mendoza (50.12) placed first and second, respectively, in the 100 back, then Gavin Green (55.97) won and Michael Phillips (55.99) placed second in the 100 breast.

The first half of the meet ended with George Washington winning the 200 fly and 50 races and Navy's Blakeman Shaw winning the one-meter diving board with his score of 320.25.

Navy resumed its winning streak in the swimming events when the meet started as Aguirre (45.26) edged teammate Benjamin Stankovich (45.99) for the victory in the 100 free.  Afterward, Will De La Garza won the 200 back (1:48.96), Phillips won the 200 breast (2:02.77) and Andrew posted a victory in the 500 free (4:31.67).

The Revolutionaries won the 100 fly, but the Mids crossed the meet-clinching 151-point threshold with the results.

Shaw earned another victory in the three-meter diving event (349.95), George Washington won the 400 individual medley and the Mids won the 200 free relay to end the meet.

"We had several team members step up today throughout the meet," said Roberts.  "In some cases, it may be a case of swimming two events very close to each other.  Another example was multiple team members swimming four events today.  And in the traditional sense, it was a team member stepping up to produce a new in-season best time.  It was great to see numerous team members work through a challenging week with exams and still be able to perform at a high level on Saturday."

Women's Meet
The women's meet was close from start to finish.  George Washington won six of the eight events in the last half of the meet to come away with the victory.

Navy had a good start to the day as it won the 400 medley relay and also placed third in the race to take a 13-4 lead.  George Washington's Ava Topolewski won both the 1000 free and the 200 free to draw the visitors to within one point at 28-27.  A win by the Revolutionaries in the 200 back gave them a 40-34 lead. The lead went right back to Navy as it had a 1-2-3 finish in the 100 breast.  Maddie Koutavas (1:03.61), Lauren Walsh (1:03.72) and Elsie Delacruz (1:05.33) registered the sweep to make the score 50-43.  

The score was tied at 56-56 following a victory by George Washington in the 200 fly, with a win by Navy's Caroline Irwin in the 50 free giving the Mids a 69-62 lead.  A victory by George Washington in three-meter diving made the score 76-74 in favor of the Revolutionaries with eight events completed and eight remaining.

George Washington outscored Navy 27-11 in the next two events, the 100 free and 200 back, then Walsh (2:16.98) and Koutavas (2:17.92) placed first and second, respectively, in the 200 breast to allow the Mids to close to gap down to 107-100.  The Revolutionaries won the next two races, the 500 free and 100 fly, but in the process gained only two points on the Mids (127-118).

Mackenzie Kim totaled 250.73 points to win the one-meter diving board, which made it a four-point meet at 134-130.  The Revolutionaries would place first and second in the 400 individual medley race to take a 147-136 lead.  That meant the Mids had to win and also place first in the 200 free relay to win the meet by two points.  George Washington won the race by three-tenths of a second to secure the decision.

"Our breaststroke corps came up big with Maddie winning the 100 and Lauren the 200," said Morrison.  "Catherine Weaverling had two big fly swims, as did Allie Maloney in the 200 free and 200 back.  Our divers did a great job of fighting back on the one meter.  

"We learned a lot about our team today and we look forward to building upon that into next week's meet."

Up Next
Both Navy teams will travel to Lewisburg, Pa., for a Nov. 9 meet at Bucknell and also against American and Lafayette.