Women's Swimming & Diving | 2/19/2026 10:02:00 PM

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Thursday's efforts by the Navy swimming and diving team at the Patriot League Championship were highlighted by a trio of victories and a pair of NCAA Championship-qualifying times at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.  The Navy men's team has amassed 619 points and leads second-place Army by 191 points, while the Navy women's team has tallied 500 points and holds a lead of 112 points over Army.

Individually, Dean Jones won the 500 free, Lauren Walsh won the 200 individual medley and Ben Denman-Grimm placed first in the 50 freestyle, with Jones and Denman-Grimm qualified to compete at the national championship in a few weeks.

"We were very pleased with the energy and fight today," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison.  "Our swimmers did a great job in the morning, which fed many lifetime bests at the night and gave us the lead.  It was great to see our three seniors, Sarah Eldridge, Maddie Koutavas and Lauren Walsh achieve lifetime best times.  Lauren's win was a huge boost for our team.

"Our divers also were tremendous today.  Advancing four to the championship final is a great feat."

"I was incredibly proud of how our team competed today," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts.  "In a championship meet like this, there will always be ups and downs throughout each session.  I thought the team handled all of the unexpected extremely well and we were able to produce some very strong results tonight.  

"We are already looking forward to the morning as we have a very exciting day ahead."

500 Freestyle
Women
Team Eldridge led a foursome of Mids in the championship final with her second-place finish of 4:48.55.  Brynn Stoneburg placed second (4:51.33), Erin Miller finished in fifth place (4:55.24) and Marin Rose placed eighth (4:56.18).

Men
Navy swimmers filled six of the eight lanes at the start of the championship final and Mids would touch the wall at the end of the race in first, second, third, fourth and fifth places.  Highlighting all of them was Jones, who posted a time of 4:16.73 to win the race and also qualify for the NCAA Championship as his clocking was under the standard of 4:18.07.  (The new qualification format advances any individual event conference champion to the NCAA Championship if their winning time in the final is below the established standard.)

Jones narrowly edged Xavier Sohovich for the win as his time of 4:16.76 placed him second.  Chase Maier followed in third place (4:19.44), Martin Perecinsky placed fourth (4:19.73) and Ben Mauldin claimed fifth place (4:21.64).  Additionally, Luca Oliva finished in eighth place (4:26.53).

200 Individual Medley
Women
Now a senior, Walsh had earned the silver medal in six of her previous nine individual events at the Patriot League Championship over the last three years.  Tonight, she finally had a gold medal placed over her neck as she posted a time of 1:58.46 to win the championship final by 95-hundredths of a second.

Walsh was joined in the final by teammate Elsie Delacruz, who recorded a time of 2:00.57 to finish in third place.

Men
Navy swimmers placed second and third in the championship final as Michael Phillips placed second with a time of 1:45.03 and Coleman Yates finished in third with his clocking of 1:45.41.

50 Freestyle
Women
Navy did not qualify any swimmers for the championship final.

Men
It was an Army-Navy battle in the championship final as the race featured four wearing the blue and gold and three in black and gold.

Denman-Grimm broke a slew of records and qualified for the national championship with his winning time of 19.28.  That effort broke the school (19.47), pool (19.45), league and meet records (19.35) and was well under the NCAA qualification standard of 19.43.

Army's Johnny Crush placed second at 19.48, then Navy's Preston Kessler (19.56) and Lachlan Andrew (19.62) followed in third and fourth places, respectively.  Also, Gavin Green placed sixth with his time of 19.73.

Women's One-Meter Diving
Navy's Mackenzie Kim, last year's champion on both boards, scored 290.70 points in the prelims to lead all divers by 15 points.  She was joined in the championship final by teammates Lily Barrett (fifth, 244.55), Izzy Olson (sixth, 243.15) and Claire Ellish (seventh, 234.90). 

However, Kim was edged for the title in 19 points as her score of 281.60 placed her second.  Ellish followed in third place (269.75), Olson finished in fourth place (268.90) and Barrett scored 257.95 points to finish in sixth place.

400 Medley Relay
Women
Army placed first in a time of 3:34.27, Boston followed in second at 3:39.42 and Navy came in third place with a 3:39.57.

Men
A strong opening leg by Army gave the Black Knights a cushion over the rest of the race as they posted a time of 3:04.17 to win the race by almost 1.7 seconds over the Navy second-place clocking of 3:05.85.

Women's Scores
1. Navy - 500
2. Army - 388
3. Boston - 369
4. Bucknell - 359
5. Loyola - 309
6. Colgate - 255
7. American - 237
8. Lehigh - 225
9. Holy Cross - 140
10. Lafayette - 130

Men's Scores
1. Navy - 619
2. Army - 428
3. Loyola - 347
4. Boston - 343
5. Bucknell - 297
6. Lehigh - 214
7. Holy Cross - 202
8. Lafayette - 178
9. Colgate - 150
10. American - 134