ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy swimming and diving teams battled their way to five gold medals Thursday during the first full day of the Patriot League Championship at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.  The results placed both teams in first place ahead of second-place Army by 54 points in the women's tabulation and 50 points in the men's standings.

Winning titles were Gabi Baldwin in the women's 200 individual medley, Jonah Harm in the men's 50 free, Finn Gelbach in the men's one-meter diving event and both 400 medley relay teams.

500 Freestyle
The Navy women's team placed a trio of swimmers into the championship final.  Sarah Eldridge placed fourth with a time of 4:54.16, Abbie Sullivan followed in fifth place with a clocking of 4:55.90 and Cameron Horner placed eighth with her effort of 4:59.11.

The Navy men's team also advanced three to the event's championship final.  Everet Andrew earned the silver medal with his second-place time of 4:20.72, Ben Stankovich tallied a fifth-place finish with a time of 4:23.86 and Zach Stump placed seventh with his 4:25.15 swim.

200 Individual Medley
One of the closest finals of the night was in the women's 200 IM.  Navy's Baldwin edged last year's champion, Loyola's Lily Mead, by 17-hundredths of a second for the gold medal.  Baldwin won the event with her time of 1:59.18 and Mead took the silver medal with a time of 1:59.35.  Joining Baldwin in the championship final were teammates Riley Gavigan and Lauren Walsh.  Gavigan placed fifth in the final with a time of 2:01.61 and Walsh placed eighth with a showing of 2:04.08.

Army scored its most points in an event this evening with a first, second, fourth and fifth-place finishes in the men's 200 IM.  The lone Navy swimmer to advance to the championship final was Michael Phillips, and his time of 1:46.83 placed him sixth in the race.

50 Freestyle
Maya Novack was the only Navy women's swimmer to reach the A final in the event.  She posted a time of 23.33 to finish in sixth place.

Navy had a great result in the men's 50 free as four Mids advanced to the final.  Harm advanced to the final with a time of 19.59 in the trials, which broke the pool (19.66) and meet (19.67) records in the event.  He lowered the standard even more and also broke the league record (19.55) in winning the championship final in a time of 19.49 which gave him the victory by one-quarter of a second.

Ben Denman-Grimm posted a time of 19.93 to place fourth, Gavin Green recorded a 19.95 to tie for fifth place and Kris Lawson placed eighth with a time of 20.29.

Men's One-Meter Diving
The two service academy teams combined for the top-seven finishers in the championship final.  Gelbach posted a score of 381.10 to win the prelims by 31 points in the afternoon, then scored 403.80 points to win the evening final by 53 points.  He bettered teammate Blakeman Shaw's second-place score of 350.20, with Shaw edging Army's top finishing diver by 1.1 points.  The Black Knights also finished in fourth place, another 1.15 points behind, then Navy's George Moore (326.60), Anthony Sciulli (318.75) and Zach Peng (296.35) claimed fifth through seventh place, respectively.

400 Medley Relay
Navy held the lead throughout the women's 400 medley relay race, but it was never any kind of comfortable advantage.  Ela Habjan, Riley Gavigan and Caroline Irwin staked anchor swimmer Maya Novack to a 1.46-second lead through 300 yards, with Novack eventually winning the race by 42-hundredths of a second.  The Navy team recorded a time of 3:37.25 to break the pool record (3:37.87) and better the second-place Army clocking of 3:37.47.

The men's edition of the race saw Navy, Loyola and Army each hold the lead at one of the time checks.  The Mids started with the advantage and held it through the first 150 yards, then Army took the lead by three-tenths of a second over Loyola and one second over Navy at the midpoint of the race.  The Greyhounds took their first lead after 250 yards, with the Mids in second and the Black Knights in third, and that was the order with 100 yards still to go.  Anchor swimmer Denman-Grimm gave the Mids a 12-hundredths of a second advantage over Loyola after 50 yards of his freestyle leg, and held a similarly close cushion over his finish.  Navy's team, which started with Ben Irwin, Green and Patrick Colwell, completed the race in a time of 3:08.41 to better Loyola's time of 3:08.51 and the Army effort of 3:09.79.

Up Next
The meet continues Friday and Saturday.

Women's Standings (through seven events)
1. Navy, 502
2. Army, 448
3. Boston U., 356
4. Lehigh, 310
5. Loyola, 287
6. Bucknell, 273
7. Colgate, 217
8. American, 192
9. Holy Cross, 140
10. Lafayette, 113

Men's Standings (through seven events)
1. Navy, 570.5
2. Army, 520.5
3. Bucknell, 390
4. Loyola, 365
5. Boston U., 221.5
6. Lafayette, 203.5
7. Lehigh, 197
8. Holy Cross, 175
9. Colgate, 135
10. American, 100