ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Two very different meets in terms of how they transpired ended with the same result as the Navy men's and women's swimming and diving teams each defeated Army, Saturday afternoon at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.  The Navy women's team (6-2) won only four events and never led until the end of the final event, the 400 free relay, in rallying to edge Army (7-1), 152-148.  Conversely, the Navy men's team (8-0) took the lead for good after the second event on its way to winning 12 events and recording a 206-94 victory over the Black Knights (4-2).

The results on The Yard were a reverse from last year's meet at Army when the Black Knights swept the Mids (women: 169-131, men: 192.5-107.5).  Today's respective victories also gives the Navy men's team a 33-2 record in the last 35 years of the series and the Navy women's team a 36-1 record against Army in the last 37 seasons.

It was the closest women's meet since Navy defeated Army, 151-149, on Nov. 30, 2000, which came one year after the Mids defeated the Black Knights by today's score of 152-148 (Dec. 2, 1999).  The men's team topped 200 points in the meet for the seventh time since going to a 16-event slate in 2006-07 and the first since recording a 209.5-90.5 victory on Dec. 7, 2017.

"Hats off to the Army women," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison.  "They put together a great meet with some unbelievable performances.   We have been rehearsing this meet for 51 weeks knowing we would need an entire team performance to come away with a win.  It certainly paid dividends today, as this win was an entire Navy swimming and diving win, with the current team and all the alumni in the stands together making this happen.   The environment was absolutely electric, and it motivated our swimmers and divers above and beyond what maybe even they thought they could accomplish."

"A very special day for our programs and the Naval Academy," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts.  "We would first like to thank everybody who made this meet possible in the athletic department, the Naval Academy and within our program.  The support was second to none and it really set the table for an unbelievable experience for everybody who participated today.  The atmosphere here for this meet, year in and year out, is unlike anything else you see in college swimming.  All credit to the team, especially the Class of 2026.  Led by team captain Ben Stankovich, they have been bought in since the day they arrived and really wanted to make this a special season.  It was a lot of fun for us to see them reach many of their goals today.  I could not be more proud to be the coach at Navy and to work with these young men and women who will go out and lead our country in a short time."

"We could not be prouder of our divers," said Navy head diving coach Tim Fisher, whose charges won all four boards and accounted for nine of the 12 medalists positions.  "(Assistant coach) Anne Schwemmer and I have watched them put in the work each day with the intention to be better than the day before."

Women's Meet
Army won 12 events on the day, but in seven of its 11 individual event victories the Mids placed second, third and fourth.  That meant the Black Knights scored 10 points and Navy nine in each of those seven races and kept the meet relatively tight from start to finish.

Army won the first seven events of the meet to take a 75-56 advantage.  

The Black Knights won the meet-opening 200 medley relay (1:38.48, Army record, meet record, league record) by 1.54 seconds, but the Mids finished in second (1:40.02) and third places (1:40.44) to score six points to 11 for Army.  Molly Webber then won the 1000 free (9:50.35, Army record, meet record) by 2.73 seconds over Navy's Sarah Eldridge (9:53.08), with her teammates Brynn Stoneburg (10:04.73) placing third and Marin Rose (10:05.93) finishing in fourth place.  Webber completed a rare and challenging double by winning the ensuing 200 free (1:47.14). Just as in the 1000 free, Navy swimmers placed second (Erin Miller, 1:49.86), third (Samantha Clifford, 1:49.99) and fourth (Kaitlyn Landers, 1:50.32) to mitigate some of the potential damage.

Army's Angie McKane next won the 100 back (52.85, Army record, meet record) by 1.71 seconds over Navy's Ela Habjan (54.56).  Addy Herl placed third for the Mids (54.58) in the race, with the Black Knights scoring three swimmers for the first time in the meet as Jenna Hart finished fourth (54.59) and Layne Peterson fifth (55.31).  It was back to a 2-3-4 finish for the Mids in the 100 breast as Lauren Walsh (1:01.00), Corinne Warriner (1:01.63) and Marley Barnard (1:02.34) finished behind event-winner Catriona Gilmore (1:00.42).  The 200 fly results gave the Black Knights a 65-47 lead as Sydney Braeger (1:59.36) won the race and Army teammate Cora Webber (2:00.99) placed third.  Allie Maloney (2:00.38) was Navy's top finisher in second place.  McKane then won the 50 free (22.75) by almost eight-tenths of a second over the second-place finishing (23.53) Navy tandem of Elsie Delacruz and Anastasia Fleming.

Navy climbed back into the meet by claiming the top-three spots in the three-meter diving event.  Mackenzie Kim scored 274.95 points to win the event, Lily Barrett placed second with 258.15 points and Izzy Olson followed in third place with a score of 239.78.  That drew the Mids to within six points at 78-72 with half of the meet still to go.

The Black Knights extended their lead to 101-87 after winning the 100 free and 200 back events.  McKane won her third event of the day, the 100 free (49.13, Army record, meet record), ahead of Landers (50.30), Miller (51.10) and Clifford (51.21).  Next, Peterson won the 200 back (1:57.80) with Hart placing third (1:59.08) around Maloney in second (1:58.31) and Habjan in fourth (2:00.29).

Navy's Lauren Walsh posted a time of 2:12.04 to win the 200 breast –– the lone individual swimming event victory recorded by the Mids –– by one-quarter of a second.  With Maddie Koutavas also finishing third (2:13.44) and Warriner placing fourth (2:15.23), it was just a 106-101 Army lead.  The 500 free followed and the Mids placed second (Eldridge, 4:51.37), third (Stoneburg, 4:52.74) and fourth (Rose, 4:58.34) in back of Molly Webber (4:48.74) to fall behind by six points, then it was a 129-116 score after the Black Knights claimed the top-two finishers in the 100 fly.  Braeger won the race (54.60) and Cora Webber finished second (55.35), while Jules McCranie and Herl tied for third (55.51) and their Navy teammate Clarice Spencer placed fifth (55.99).

Kim came through again as she totaled 279.30 points to win the one-meter board by 17 points over Army's Hadley Futch (262.35).  Also, Barrett placed third (260.93) and Claire Ellish fourth (241.73) to give Navy three scoring divers.  The event also made the overall score Army 134, Navy 130 with two events remaining.  

The last individual event of the meet, the 200 individual medley, saw Gilmore win the race (2:01.10) and Navy's Walsh (2:02.96), Delacruz (2:03.77) and Warriner (2:05.61) earn the next three positions to set the stage for a dramatic 400 free relay.

Army held a 144-139 lead heading into the event.  The math was simple: Navy needed to win and also place either second or third to win the meet.  If the Mids won the race and the Black Knights finished both second and third, the meet would end in a 150-150 tie.  A victory by Army and the Black Knights would win the meet regardless of the second and third-place results.

Navy received the start it wanted as Miller (A team) and Viviana Vergara-Anglim (B team) had the Mids in first and second place, respectively, after 100 yards.  The second Mids in the water, Maloney (A) and Clifford (B), also exited with Navy in first (1:41.00) and second (1:42.34) places ahead of Army's third-place clocking of 1:43.40.  Navy's Fleming was next in the water (A) and she finished her 100 yards with her team in first place with a time of 2:32.28.  The race for second grew tighter as McCranie gave her (B) team of Mids a second-place time of 2:33.45, just ahead of Army's clocking of 2:34.02.  

That left anchor swimmers freshman Landers (A) and senior team captain Eldridge (B) to try and keep the Mids on pace with the overflow crowd of more than 1,000 fans, plus every athlete and coach, all on their feet.  After 50 yards, Landers was in first place (2:56.05), but Army had taken over second (2:57.33) as a great 50 yards by Molly Webber moved the Black Knights ahead of Eldridge's team (2:57.87).  Landers would touch the wall with her team having a collective time of 3:22.00 to win the race, Army's team finished in second place (3:22.81) and the foursome that included Eldridge completed the event in third place with a time of 3:24.72, which was 3.5 seconds ahead of the fourth-place finishing Army team.

"We knew that we had to keep it close by scoring three in each event and placing two of three possible scoring relays," said Morrison.  "Fortunately, the divers were able to push us over the top with some incredible performances on the boards.  Our seniors did an amazing job of leading from the front.  We could not be more proud of their incredible leadership, energy and effort they brought to training preparation for this meet."

"Credit to their team for sticking with it and not giving up at any point during the meet," said Roberts of the Navy women's team.  "It did not look good for them at multiple times later and later in the meet, but they just kept doing what they needed to do to push it to the last event.  Really just a special final few races with the meet on the line.  Hats off to the coaches and the team for finding the will and really digging deep to make that happen.  I am not sure if too many teams would have been able to do what they pulled off today."  

Men's Meet
In contrast, the Navy men's team won 12 events and placed first, second and third in seven events to build an early cushion that only grew as the day went on.  

Army took a 11-6 lead by winning the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:22.95 (Army record, meet record, pool record, league record) to better Navy's effort of 1:23.80 (tied Navy record).  Navy answered by winning the 1000 free as Ben Mauldin placed first (8:56.56) and teammate Chase Maier finished in second place (9:00.78).  Maier's time was nine seconds ahead of the third-place time posted by Army's Brice Barrieault.

"We knew Army had a special relay," said Roberts. "We did what we could against the relay, and we knew after that we didn't have a lot of room to spare.  We had to be strong in the 1000 free. The exciting part of the 1000 was that it was a very tight race and then you started to see some people pull away.   I think guys just started to realize what's possible inside of them in a close race.  You have to work past that pain you are feeling and everything you are fighting against in the water to get to the wall.  The 1000 guys did a great job of showing the rest of the team what is inside of you.  And then the next few races were supposed to be very close, but the Navy swimmers really stepped up.  I think it goes back to this being a momentum meet.  The momentum went against us last year, but we benefited from it today."

The Mids followed with a first, second and third-place finish in the 200 free.  Xavier Sohovich won the race (1:33.77, Navy record, meet record, league record), Martin Perecinsky finished second (1:34.41) and Benjamin Stankovich recorded a third-place showing (1:34.93).  Though he was not a scoring swimmer, Kellan Pattison also placed fourth (1:35.37) for the Mids.  Their efforts boosted the Mids to a 36-19 lead.

Army won the 100 back (Johnny Crush, 44.72, pool record) and 100 breast (Kohen Rankin, 50.76, Army record, meet record, pool record, league record) events to draw to within 52-41.  Crush was followed by Navy's Ben Irwin in second (45.81), Luke Lamb in third (46.69) and Will Jones in fourth (47.82).  Rankin bettered Juan Mora to the wall (51.58), but Navy also accounted for the fourth (Michael Phillips, 53.05) and fifth-place (Gavin Green, 53.21) swimmers. 

The back-to-back Army wins were followed by a 1-2-3 Navy finish in both the 200 fly and 50 free to boost Navy out to an 84-47 lead.  Dean Jones won the 200 fly (1:42.92, meet record) with Evan O'Dea placing second (1:43.30) and Tyler Kaminski finishing in third place (1:44.64).  The 50 free was won by Lachlan Andrew (19.47, Navy record, meet record) over Ben Denman-Grimm (19.48) and Preston Kessler (19.72).  

The first half of the meet ended with Navy in front, 95-55, following a victory by Anthony Sciulli in the one-meter diving event as his score of 302.40 won him the board by 12 points.

Denman-Grimm, who was edged by one-hundredth of a second by Andrew in the 50 free, posted a time of 42.95 to win the 100 free (Navy record, meet record), with Kessler claiming second place (43.26).  Irwin then led a 1-2-3 finish for Navy in the 200 back (1:39.93).  He was followed by Perecinsky in second (1:42.11) and Will Jones in third (1:42.69).  The Mids would go on to place first and second in the next event, the 200 breast, as Phillips earned the victory (1:52.43, Navy record, meet record, pool record, league record) and Mora placed second (1:52.55).  

Navy then placed first, second, third and fourth in the 500 free.  Dean Jones won the event (4:19.53), Sohovich placed second (4:21.70), Mauldin finished in third place (4:21.77) and Maier was a non-scoring finisher in fourth (4:24.63).  Next, Irwin recorded his second victory of the day as he won the 100 fly (46.93) by one-quarter of a second over Army's Daniel Verdolaga (47.18).

Luke Ogren paced a 1-2-3 finish for the Mids in three-meter diving with his score of 325.13 bettering teammates Finn Gelbach in second place (323.33) and Sciulli in third (295.65).

The individual event portion of the meet ended with the 200 individual medley and the results marked the fourth 1-2-3-4 finish for Navy on the day.  Gio Aguirre placed first (1:46.95), Coleman Yates finished in second place (1:47.35), Charlie Greenwood earned third place (1:49.40) and Pattison placed fourth (1:49.50).  

Army would win the meet-ending 400 free relay as its time of 2:50.18 (Army record, meet record, pool record, league record) narrowly bettered the Navy time of 2:50.45 (Navy record).  Navy teams were in first (43.17) and second places (43.45) ahead of the third-place Army team (43.76) after 100 yards.  The Mids remained in first place (1:25.04) halfway through the race with Army now in second (1:25.86) by six-tenths of a second.  It still was a narrow Navy lead (2:07.75-2:08.71) through both 300 and 350 yards (2:27.82-2:28.18), but a great closing sprint by Crush over Andrew gave the Black Knights the victory by 27-hundredths of a second.