ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy swimming and diving teams swept the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke titles Friday at the Patriot League Championship in Lejeune Hall to remain in first place with one day remaining.

The Navy women's team entered the day in front of second-place Army by 54 points.  The Mids now lead the Black Knights by 177 points.  The Navy men's team led the Black Knights by 50 points at the start of Friday but saw that margin cut to 45 points by the end of the day.

Winning the 100 fly titles were Caroline Irwin and Jonah Harm, with Ela Habjan and Ben Irwin winning the 100 back races.

100 Butterfly
American's Mimi Watts won the title in 2023 and had the fastest time by almost one second in the prelims Friday with her 53.49 effort.  However, Irwin produced a 52.68 in the final to win the crown by 16-hundredths of a second over the second-place Watts.  Also qualifying for Navy in the A final was Catherine Weaverling.  She just missed a podium spot with a fourth-place showing of 54.05.

Harm broke his own pool record of 46.27 with his time of 46.07 in the morning trial heats.  He made his top seed stand in the final with a new pool-record clocking of 45.78 to win the event for the third year in a row.  Placing second in the final was teammate Patrick Colwell (45.94), with Ben Denman-Grimm placing seventh (48.46) and Kris Lawson recording an eighth-place finish (49.98).

400 Individual Medley
A pair of Mids qualified for the women's championship final.  Rachel Schlemmer posted a 4:23.62 to finish in fifth place and Abbie Sullivan touched the wall in sixth place with a clocking of 4:24.70.  The Mids led the Black Knights, 645-538, after the event.

Army had the first, second, third and seventh-best times in the morning trials, with Navy entries placing fifth and sixth.  The Black Knights did win the gold and silver medals, but Jake Douberly placed fourth (3:52.45) and Zach Stump finished in sixth place (3:54.33) to somewhat breakup the Army block.  The result did dwindle the Navy lead to 37 points (745.5-708.5), but the Mids scored 12 points higher than was anticipated.

200 Freestyle
Navy's Gabi Baldwin was edged for the victory in the championship final by less than one-half of a second with her time of 1:47.75.  Teammate Cameron Horner had a sixth-place finish with a time of 1:50.02.  The results pushed the Mids to a 728-597 lead on the Black Knights.

This was expected to be another strong event for the Army men's team based upon the times posted earlier in the day as the Black Knights finished first, second, sixth and seventh this morning while the Mids placed third, fourth and eighth.

Army's Wes Tate won the race in a time of 1:35.20, but Navy's Everet Andrew, who had won the last two titles in the race, moved up to second place with a time of 1:35.51.  Bucknell's Chris Kopac moved all the way to third place (1:35.72) with Navy's Ben Stankovich placing fourth (1:35.77).

The Navy lead was again cut, this time to 20 points (841.5-821.5), but the margin was not as much as it was thought to be prior to the session.

100 Breaststroke
A great race occurred in the women's edition of the race.  Navy's Riley Gavigan totaled a 1:01.43, but that left her in second place behind Army's Aurielie Migault's winning time of 1:01.21.  Gavigan's teammate Lauren Wash finished in fifth place with a time of 1:02.80.

It was another Army-Navy dominate field in the men's championship final.  Army had the Nos. 1 and 7 seeds and Navy had the Nos. 3, 4 and 8 seeds.  The Black Knights would finish in first and seventh place and the Mids placed fourth, fifth and eighth.  Navy's swimmers were Gavin Green in fourth (53.50), Juan Mora in fifth (53.64) and Michael Phillips in eighth (53.81).  The results gave Navy a 934.5-876.5 lead heading into the last individual event of the night.

100 Backstroke
Ela Habjan entered the evening session as the top-seeded swimmer with her effort of 53.43 in the morning.  She improved upon her time at night to win the final with an effort of 53.41.  Navy's Megan Murphy joined her on the podium with a third-place finish of 55.03.  The Mids led Army, 849-690, through the event.

When scored out from the morning session, Army and Navy each were expected to tally 68 points in the three men's races.  In the end, Army scored more points than Navy, 72-67.5, to cut the margin down to 1,002-949.

Leading the morning results was Navy's Ben Irwin with his time of 47.35.  After seeing his older sister Caroline win the 100 fly, he bettered his morning time to win the event in a clocking of 46.84.  Three Loyola swimmers followed, then Patrick Colwell tied an Army swimmer for fifth place with a time of 47.93.

Women's One-Meter Diving
Navy advanced four into the eight-diver championship final.  Mackenzie Kim earned second place with a score of 289.85.  Additionally, Sarah Gurley placed sixth (247.60) for the Mids, Izzy Olson placed seventh (243.00) and Alexanda Kwasniewski finished in eighth place (233.75).

200 Freestyle Relay
The Mids placed fifth in the women's edition of the race. Irwin, Habjan, Anna Freyman and Maya Novack recorded a time of 1:32.84.

The Black Knights closed the evening by edging Navy in the men's 200 free race.  Army posted a time of 1:18.19 to win by two-hundredths of a second (1:18.21) over the Navy team of Jonah Harm, Denman-Grimm, Green and Andrew.

Up Next
The meet concludes Saturday.

Women's Standings (through 14 events)
1. Navy, 1,003
2. Army, 826
3. Boston U., 708
4. Bucknell, 597
5. Lehigh, 566.5
6. Loyola, 564.5
7. Colgate, 411
8. American, 363
9. Holy Cross, 263
10. Lafayette, 195

Men's Standings (through 13 events)
1. Navy, 1,058
2. Army, 1,013
3. Loyola, 739
4. Bucknell, 698.5
5. Boston U., 378
6. Lehigh, 329
7. Lafayette, 281.5
8. Holy Cross, 254
9. Colgate, 238
10. American, 176