2024 Patriot League Champs: Navy’s Jonah Harm Sets a Trio of 50 Free Records on Night 2

2024 PATRIOT LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS

• February 21-24, 2024
• Lejeune Hall – Annapolis, MD
• 25 Yards (SCY)
• Defending Champions:
  • Women: Navy (12x)
  • Men: Navy (19x)
• Start Times: 10am (ET) prelims/6pm (ET) finals
  • Day 1 finals: 5pm (ET)
• Championship Central 
• Live Stream
• Fan Guide
• Day 1 Results | Day 1 Recap
• Day 2 Results

TEAM SCORES (THRU DAY 2)

MEN

1. Navy – 570.5
2. Army – 520.5
3. Bucknell – 390
4. Loyola – 365
5. BU – 221.5
6. Lafayette – 203.5
7. Lehigh – 197
8. Holy Cross – 175
9. Colgate – 135
10. American – 100

WOMEN

1. Navy – 502
2. Army – 448
3. BU – 356
4. Lehigh – 310
5. Loyola – 287
6. Bucknell – 273
7. Colgate – 217
8. American – 192
9. Holy Cross – 140
10. Lafayette – 113

Day two of the 2024 Patriot League Championships is in the books. Night two featured the finals of the 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 400 medley relay, and men’s 1-meter diving. In the team race, reigning double-champions Navy started to separate themselves from the pack, leading both the women’s and the men’s meet by at least 50 points.

Every individual swimming event was won with a personal best. Army sophomore Molly Webber got things rolling in the women’s 500 free, taking home her second straight title in 4:46.38 for an NCAA B-cut. She led wire-to-wire and was the only swimmer to crack 4:50 tonight. Runner-up Willa Werwaiss of Lehigh also clocked a best time, touching in 4:50.71 to shave nearly five seconds off her 6th place time from last year.

Wes Tate made it an Army sweep in the men’s event, clocking 4:17.79 to break 4:20 for the first time. The junior placed 7th in this event as a freshman, 3rd as a sophomore, and is now a Patriot League champion. The entire podium got under the NCAA B-cut, with Navy’s Everet Andrew (4:20.72) and Army’s Ian Tansill (4:21.65) also clearing the standard.

Navy got their first individual win from Gabi Baldwin in the 200 IM (1:59.18), who used a big 28.12 freestyle split to pull past defending champ Lily Mead of Loyola for the win (1:59.35). Army’s Aurelie Migault also joined them in breaking the 2:00-barrier. Prior to this season, both Baldwin and Migault had never been sub-2:00 before.

It was back to Army in the men’s race, with Joey Kling (1:45.70) and Alex Edwards (1:45.99) going 1-2. Last year, Kling placed 10th in this event and dropped over 1.5-seconds to take home the title this year. It was a tight race for 3rd: Max Verheyen (Loyola) pulled past Army’s Kohen Rankin in the last 50 by just five-hundredths to clock 1:46.22.

In the 50 free, Mimi Watts gave the American women their first title this meet. She successfully defended her title with a 22.38, dropping 14-hundredths of a second from her 2023 time which stood as her previous best time. Watts just missed the conference and meet record of 22.36, set in 2009 by Navy swimmer Thuy-Mi Dinh. Boston University freshman Han Hoang touched in 22.51 for 2nd, the only other woman to break 23 seconds. 3rd-place finisher Meghan Cole (Army) got close, hitting a 23.01.

The men’s event saw the pool, conference, and meet records fall. Navy senior Jonah Harm, the 2023 Patriot League Swimmer of the Meet, scorched 19.49 to erase the trio of records. Caleb Kelly (Loyola) and Owen Harlow (Army) who had the fastest anchor legs in the 200 medley relay on night one touched 2nd (19.74) and 3rd (19.77). All three swimmers got under the NCAA B-standard.

On the boards, Navy flexed its diving depth with five finalists in the men’s 1-meter event, including the top two finishers. Finnian Gelbach walked away with the title, scoring 403.80 points. His teammate Blake Shaw (350.20) took 2nd. Isaac Newman of Army rounded out the podium, earning 349.10 points.

Navy continued their winning streak in the final event of the night, the 400 medley relay. Their women’s team of Ela Habjan (53.39), Riley Gavigan (1:00.64), Caroline Irwin (53.47), and Maya Novack (49.75) broke the pool record when they clocked 3:37.25. Only Gavigan returns from that relay, which was set in 2022. Army also got under the old pool record (3:37.47) with a quartet of Layne Peterson (55.18), Aurelie Migault (1:00.20), Melinda Zhang (53.58) and Molly Webber (48.51).

The men’s 400 medley relay was a tight race between Navy and Loyola. Navy got out to a quick lead thanks to Ben Irwin who split 46.82 to Loyola’s Joe Hayburn’s 47.31. Then Loyola pulled into the lead with a 52.25 from 200 IM runner-up Max Verheyen, who out-split Gavin Green (53.44). They managed to hold on after the butterfly leg, though Navy’s Patrick Colwell (45.58) started to close the gap on Patrick Hayburn (46.18), who touched just a tenth ahead. It came down to Loyola’s Caleb Kelly versus Ben Denman-Grimm on the anchor legs. Denman-Grimm split 42.57 to Kelly’s 42.77, giving Navy the win by a tenth (3:08.41) over Loyola (3:08.51).

There were three relay disqualifications in total: Bucknell and Colgate were disqualified in the women’s event, and American’s team was disqualified in the men’s. Last night, the Army women were disqualified in the 800 free relay, reportedly for an early takeover, but it was overturned before prelims today. Similar to night one, the reaction times on the results are all over the place, with many listed in the negative-tenths. It seems there are still a number of technical difficulties with the timing system to sort out.