West Point, NY – The Patriot League showdown between the Army and Navy swim teams ended in a double victory for the Navy Midshipmen. On December 11th, the Army Black Knights fell to Navy on both the men’s (199-101) and women’s (194-106) sides, bringing the all-time record between these two rivals to 29-4 in Navy’s favor. Over the course of the meet, several meet records and pool records fell, including one by Olympic legend Mark Spitz.
Women’s Events
Although the Army women started things off strongly with their win the 200y medley relay (1:42.31), the Navy took control of the rest of the women’s meet, earning victories in a total of ten events. Midshipmen Jenny Smith took wins in both the 500y and 1000y freestyle events, with the top times of 4:51.53 and 9:56.40, respectively. Her 500y time was fast enough to break the previous meet record of 4:53.51, held by Ange Sawick (Navy) set in 2012.
Navy would also take the top two times in the 200y freestyle, claiming the only swimmers to slide under the 1:50 mark; Charlotte Meyer finished in 1:49.03, just .02 faster than teammate Maddie Thompson who touched in 1:49.05. For her part, Meyer surpassed her old meet record time of 1:49.13 set back in 2013.
Meyer wasn’t done with the record-breaking either, as her 1:58.08 winning time in the 200y backstroke scored a three-fer, tying the Navy women’s team record, meet record, and setting a new pool record. Meyer also earned the win in the 200y IM event, clocking a 2:01.95.
Army did strike back with a win by Kelly Hamilton in the 100y backstroke (56.22, career-best time for her) and a double-victory by Molly Mucciarone in the 50y freestyle (23.17) and 100y butterfly events (55.51), but it was not enough to hold off Navy’s strong multiple event winners, including Ellen Bradford, who swept the 100y (1:02.51) and 200y breaststroke (2:14.50) events
Men’s Events
The Navy men came on strong with 12 event wins over the course of the meet. This was led off by four consecutive top spots in the 200y medley relay, 1000y freestyle (Alex Nickell, 9:08.45), 200y freestyle (Noah Martin, 1:36.97), and 100y backstroke (Joe Lane, 48.77) events.
The Army Black Knights were able to sneak in a few victories, however, such as Colin Kanzari winning the 100y breaststroke in a time of 54.89 Chris Szekely earning the win the men’s 100y freestyle with his top time of 44.30.
However, Navy’s Jonathan DeBaugh put a stop to any Army momentum by sweeping the men’s butterfly events. His 200y fly time of 1:45.89 topped the field tonight, as did his 100m butterfly time of 47.66. His 100y fly time took it one step further, breaking the pool record of 47.98 set by legendary Olympian Mark Spitz in 1972. DeBaugh’s 100y fly time was also enough to break the meet record of 48.33.
Navy teammate Marlin Brutkiewicz did some record-breaking of his own as well, earning the 200y breaststroke race in a new pool record time of 1:58.74. Joe Lane made a sweep of the backstroke events with is win in the 200m distance in 1:46.60 and the Navy’s 400m freestyle relay ran away with the final event in a winning time of 2:59.32.
Army was site of NCAA’s that year – so that was tapered winning time
The.29-4 must refer to the Womens competition as the men have been at it way back in the other century. At the academies the coaches have two records kept one is overall and the other there Army -Navy meets. The meets are always something to see with the rivalry of the academy’s.