ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy swimming and diving teams overcame challenges posed to them by an ever increasingly talented field of competitors, a new extended meet format, illnesses and a men's disqualification to sweep the team titles at the Patriot League Championship Saturday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.

The women's team won the crown for the 12th year in a row and increased their record for the most titles won by any league team in any sport to 22 (in 32 years as a league member).

The men's team remains perfect at the league meet as the Mids have won 20 titles in their 20 years of vying for the championship.  That extends the league record for the most consecutive titles won by any team in any league sport.

The Navy women's team entered the day leading Army, 1,003-826, and the Navy men were in front of Army, 1,058-1,013.  The women's team ended the meet with 1,397 points to outdistance the Black Knights by 198 points.  The men's team accrued 1,639.5 points to finish 50.5 points ahead of the second-place Army team.

Navy's major award recipients were Jonah Harm, men's swimmer of the meet; Ben Irwin, men's rookie of the meet; Harm and Irwin, co-winners of the men's high point award; Finn Gelbach, men's diver of the meet; Ela Habjan, women's rookie of the meet; John Morrison, women's swimming coach of the year and Tim Fisher, the Joe Suriano Men's Diving Coach of the Year.

"To get to this point," said men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts, "with the result we had, it was more than a minor miracle.  With all this team went through earlier in the week and the setbacks we had, I am just speechless with how both the men and women from Navy swimming and diving found ways to summon the strength and courage to go up there and compete.  I am just at a loss for words for just what they went through this week.  It is a credit to their belief in each other.   The strength of the team is alive and well and was readily apparent throughout the week, and it is a credit to their work they put in through the year to train so hard for this moment and not have it turn out the way we wanted it in terms of some of the performances but still achieve the same result as a team is one that we will be talking about for as long as I am alive."

"It was a really big win for us," said women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "We had some great things going heading into the championship and then we had some disruption with health issues in the early part of the week.  To watch our teams persevere through the trials and tribulations that come with those type of issues is amazing.  Everybody stepped up, came back from illnesses and put it on the line for each other.  That's what it is all about.  To come away with a team win against a very good league is so exciting for everybody.  Overall, the first class did a great job of leading from the front during this week's challenges.  Just watching everybody step up in their moment was rewarding.  We are just very pleased with how we came through this meet.

"Our sports medicine staff shares in this championship.  It was all hands on deck from them all week long."

"As a whole," said first-year diving coach Tim Fisher, "the divers really stepped up in a big way.  The women weren't projected to final as many as they did, but they did exactly what I have seen them do in practice and brought home four in the final.  The guys did exactly what they do and stepped up in every way the team needed them to perform in the final in the three meter.  They ended up sweeping the podium spots.  They were driven, they were focused and they performed the same way they train."

1650 Freestyle
The 1650s were contested as a timed final based upon times posted during the regular season, with only the fastest women's and men's heats run during the evening session.  

Sarah Eldridge was the top finisher for the Navy women's team with her time of 17:00.83 and Rachel Schlemmer placed fifth (17:01.44).

Updated Women's Score: Navy, 1072; Army 906 

Army had the Nos. 1-2-3 seeds in the men's event entering the day.  The Black Knights would finish first, second, third and fifth across the three races.  Luca Oliva was the best-finishing Mid with a sixth-place showing of 15:29.60.

Updated Men's Score: Army, 1136; Navy 1099

200 Backstroke
Navy advanced a pair of swimmers to the women's final while Army had one swimmer reach the top race.  Loyola's Lilly Mead repeated as champion with her time of 1:56.24.  Mids placed second and third, however, with Gabi Baldwin winning the silver medal (1:56.53) and Ela Habjan taking the bronze (1:57.14).

Updated Women's Score: Navy, 1127; Army, 960

Navy's Ben Irwin was the fastest swimmer in the morning session with his time of 1:42.90, but Army again held a slim 3-2 advantage on the number of qualifiers into the A final.  Irwin won the final in a time of 1:41.06 to break his own league record and set a new meet record.  Jake Douberly placed eighth in the event (1:56.67), with the Army swimmers placing fourth, fifth and sixth.

However, Douberly, was later disqualified due to his finals time being 10 seconds in back of the next closest finisher.  An illness bug has been working its way through not only the Navy men's and women's teams but the Brigade of Midshipmen as a whole over the last week.  This led to multiple swimmers on each team not being able to compete at all or at the very least compete to their expected level.  Douberly was one of those impacted by the illness.  He cramped up during the race, which helped lead to his out of the ordinary effort.  A lengthy discussion ensued among the meet referee, the meet manager, the chair of coaches committee and multiple representatives from the Patriot League office, after which the disqualification was upheld due to the effort he gave forth in the race.

This decision cost Navy 22 points.

A disqualification of Army's women's 800 free relay team on Wednesday was later overturned due to a procedural error in the filing of the disqualification.

Updated Men's Score: Army, 1211; Navy, 1131

100 Freestyle
Maya Novack was the lone Mid to reach the championship final in the women's race.  She placed fifth in the race with a time of 50.63.

Updated Women's Scores: Navy, 1194; Army, 1005

The Navy men held their first advantage over Army in terms of number of entries in the championship final as the Mids sent four swimmers to the blocks and the Black Knights had three.  Navy also had 3-1 lead in swimmer competing in the B final.

The Mids went 1-2 in the championship final as Jonah Harm won the race in a time of 43.47 with Everet Andrew following in a time of 43.57.  Ben Denman-Grimm finished fourth (43.66), Ben Stankovich placed eighth (44.25) and Gavin Green won the B final (44.11).

Updated Men's Score: Army, 1299; Navy 1282.5

200 Breaststroke
Navy swimmers comprised three of the eight entries in the women's top final, while Army had two in the race.  Army's Auriele Migault won the race, but Navy's Lauren Walsh placed second in a time of 2:14.07.  Riley Gavigan took fourth place for the Mids (2:15.22) and Maddie Koutavas finished in sixth place (2:18.81).

Updated Women's Score: Navy, 1272; Army, 1064

The Black Knights took a 4-2 swimmer lead into the championship final of the men's event.  Army swimmers placed first, second, sixth and eighth with Navy's Michael Phillips finishing in fourth place (1:56.96) and Juan Mora placing seventh (1:58.27).

Updated Men's Score: Army, 1405; Navy, 1351.5

200 Butterfly
There were two Mids and two Black Knights in the women's final, but Lehigh's Sarah Hardy won the race.  Navy's Caroline Irwin finished second in a time of 1:59.36 and Abbie Sullivan placed seventh with a clocking of 2:01.21.

Updated Women's Score: Navy, 1343; Army, 1135
Navy qualified three Mids into the men's final, while Army had one in the A final and two in the B final.

Ben Irwin and Patrick Colwell were the top seeds from the morning, and that's the order they finished at night.  Irwin posted a 1:49.39 to win the race and Colwell touched the wall in second with a 1:45.09.  Douberly returned to the pool and placed fifth with a clocking of 1:47.79.

Updated Men's Scores: Army, 1460; Navy, 1436.5.

Men's Three-Meter Diving
The eight-diver final featured five Mids and three Black Knights.  Navy would place first, second, third, fifth and eighth.

Finn Gelbach put on a show, scoring 392.20 points to win the event by 24 points over teammate George Moore (368.80) with Blakeman Shaw finishing another five points back (363.70).  Anthony Sciulli placed fifth (336.85) and Zach Peng finished in eighth place (270.05).

Updated Men's Scores: Navy, 1575.5; Army, 1533

400 Freestyle Relay
The Navy women's team of seniors Hannah Pratt, Anna Freyman, Baldwin and Novack placed third in the final with a time of 3:22.36.

Thanks to the efforts of the Navy men's divers, the Mids had enough of a lead (42 points) that all they had to do to win the team title was finish the race.  A motivated foursome of Harm, Denman-Grimm, Stankovich and Andrew not only placed first by 1.18 seconds over Army, they set a new league, meet, pool and Navy record by over one full second with a time of 2:52.50.

Major Award Recipients
Women's Swimmer of the Meet: Molly Webber, Army
Men's Swimmer of the Meet: Jonah Harm, Navy
Women's Rookie of the Meet: Ela Habjan, Navy
Men's Rookie of the Meet: Ben Irwin, Navy
Women's Diver of the Meet: Sumi Cameron, Boston U
Men's Diver of the Meet: Finn Gelbach, Navy
Women's Highest Point Scorer: Molly Webber, Army
Men's Highest Point Scorer: Wes Tate, Army/Jonah Harm, Navy/Ben Irwin, Navy
Women's Swim Coach of the Year: John Morrison, Navy
Men's Swim Coach of the Year: Brian Loeffler, Loyola
Women's Diving Coach of the Year: Brad Snodgrass, Boston U
Joe Suriano Men's Diving Coach of the Year: Tim Fisher, Navy

Women's Standings
1. Navy, 1,397
2. Army, 1,199
3. Boston U., 946
4. Bucknell, 863
5. Lehigh, 850.5
6. Loyola, 812.5
7. Colgate, 573
8. American, 537
9. Holy Cross, 365
10. Lafayette, 217

Men's Standings
1. Navy, 1639.5
2. Army, 1,589
3. Loyola, 1,099
4. Bucknell, 1,043.5
5. Boston U., 600
6. Lehigh, 448.5
7. Lafayette, 393
8. Holy Cross, 390
9. Colgate, 339
10. American, 260.5