The Navy swimming and diving teams swept a meet against Patriot League foes American, Bucknell and Lafayette Saturday afternoon at Kinney Natatorium in Lewisburg, Pa. Each of the Navy programs won 11 events on the day.
In the women’s meet, Navy (5-1) defeated American by the score of 237-63, Bucknell by the count of 163-136 and Lafayette by a margin of 245-53. Navy’s men’s team (5-2) earned a 217-66 victory over the Eagles, a 168-127 triumph over the Bison and 218-77 win against the Leopards.
“We had a very good meet today,” said Navy women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “We had some big swims today, as did American, Bucknell and Lafayette. Our work over the last few weeks is starting to pay off, and now we just have to continue on.”
“Overall we had some good swims today,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “Not everything was what we were hoping for, but I was pleased with the efforts. I think everybody walked out feeling encouraged about parts of the races today.”
Accounting for three individual event wins for the two Navy programs were Jenny Smith (Fr., Columbis, Ohio) and Tom Duvall (Jr., Durham, N.H.). Smith won the 1000 free (10:19.60), the 500 free (5:02.45) and the 400 individual medley (4:27.00) races, while Duvall won the 1000 free (9:25.64), 200 free (1:41.54) and 500 free (4:31.78) events.
“Jenny’s wins are all grueling races by themselves, let alone together in one meet,” said Morrison.
“Tommy did a tough triple,” said Roberts. “The 1000 and 200 events were consecutive races. He was really strong, especially in the 1000. He came in today looking to do the triple and he put together three excellent races. I’m proud of his efforts in doing so.”
Three additional members of the Navy men’s squad won a pair of events on the day. Marlin Brutkiewicz (So., Mobile, Ala.) swept the two breaststroke events (100 breast: 56.62, 200 breast: 2:05.12), Jonathan Debaugh (Jr., Conroe, Texas) captured both butterfly races (100 fly: 50.79, 200 fly: 1:52.09) and Dain Bomberger (Sr., Litiitz, Pa.) won the two sprint freestyle contests (50 free: 20.89, 100 free: 46.26). Completing the list of winners for the Navy men’s team was Joe Esposito (Sr., Langhorne, Pa.), who won the three-meter diving competition (272.00).
The remaining six individual events won by the members of the Navy women’s team were accrued by six different Mids. Hanna Gillcrist (So., Burlington, Ky.) won the 100 breaststroke (1:05.52), Rachael Dudley (Jr., Hoschton, Ga.) won the 200 fly (2:05.74), Brianna Bilunas (Sr., Omaha, Neb.) was the winner of the 50 free (24.25), Annabel Tomes (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) won the 100 free (52.54), Ellen Bradford (Jr., Knoxville, Tenn.) won the 200 breast (2:23.74) and Hannah Collins (Fr., Bellbrook, Ohio) earned the victory in the three-meter diving event (250.65).
“I was really pleased with our overall team performance,” said Morrison. “We are definitely better in a few spots. We have some fixes we still need to make and hope to get better throughout the year.”
The Navy women’s team also won both relay events on the day, with the Navy men’s squad winning the 200 medley relay.
The Navy men’s team is now off from competition until it takes part in a meet at North Carolina from Nov. 20-22, while Navy women’s team will next compete in a three-day meet at Rutgers starting on Nov 21.
