ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Navy men's swimming and diving team (12-1) placed first, second and third in eight events on its way to winning 15 events and posting a 153-130 victory over Columbia (2-4), Friday afternoon at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.
The victory in the team's last dual meet of the season gives the Mids 12 wins for the first time since the 2015-16 season when they also finished the year with a 12-1 record.
"We had some solid performances today," said Navy men's swimming head coach
Bill Roberts. "We also had some performances in which we need to improve upon, as well. This is often the case with any competition, however today especially as we are going to look very closely at these performances to determine where we need to make some gains for the upcoming championship season."
Navy began the day by placing first (1:28.73) and second (1:28.74) in the 200 medley relay.
Chase Maier then won the first individual event of the meet, the 1000 freestyle, by eight seconds with his time of 9:17.79. A 1-2 finish for Navy ensued in the 200 freestyle as
Martin Perecinsky (1:39.39) edged teammate
Kellan Pattison (1:39.64) for the victory.
The Mids claimed the gold, silver and bronze medalists in each of the next five events.
Ben Irwin started the run with a victory in the 100 back (49.28).
Michael Phillips followed by winning the 100 breast (55.01), with
Evan O'Dea next winning the 200 fly (1:50.38).
Ben Denman-Grimm would win the 50 free (20.13) and
Finn Gelbach placed first in one-meter diving (289.13) to close the first half of the meet.
Denman-Grimm started the second half of the slate with a victory in the 100 free (43.97). Irwin and Phillips joined him as multi-event winners as the former won the 200 back (1:49.59) and the latter won the 200 breast (2:00.61). Maier next picked up his second victory of the day as he won the 500 free (4:30.90).
Dean Jones won the 100 fly (48.77),
Anthony Sciulli placed first in three-meter diving (310.13) and
Gio Aguirre won the 200 IM (1:50.21) to finish the individual event portion of the meet.
The Lions won the meet-ending 200 freestyle relay.
The Mids will play host to the multi-team Navy Invitational on Jan. 31 in what will be the team's last meet prior to starting the championship portion of its schedule.
