The Penn State women went into Annapolis, Maryland and emerged with a clean sweep win, taking all 16 events against Navy. The Nittany Lion men added a convincing 171-127 win of their own.
The Lady Lions were suffocating, winning with depth and top-tier talent across the boards. Gabi Shishkoff was unstoppable, winning three individual races without a challenge. Shishkoff went 2:00.08 in the 200 fly, 4:50.78 in the 500 free and 2:03.73 in the 200 IM. No one was within two seconds of her in any race on the day.
Alyson Ackman also had a great day, winning the 200 free (1:48.29) and 100 free (50.39) by landslides while also swimming legs of two winning Penn State relays.
The relays were where the Nittany Lions really pressed their dominance. Penn State went 1-2-3 in the 200 medley relay to open the meet (although only two relays can score points, it was still a big statement) and finished with a 1-2-3 punch in the 400 free relay.
Other double winners for Penn State were Melissa Rodriguez and Carolyn Fittin. Rodriguez won the 100 breast (1:03.42) and 200 breast (2:18.20) virtually unchallenged while also putting up a big split on the second-place 200 medley relay. Fittin won the 50 free in 23.40, the 100 fly in 55.40 and swam on both winning relays.
Meredith Harbison and Mackenzie Cornell combined to sweep diving while Mackenzie Powers and Katie Rowe did the same with backstroke. The other event winner was Megan Silverling in the 1000 free, a 1-2-3-4 finish for Penn State.
The men’s meet was a much more balanced affair, although Penn State still dominated the relays, a big key to their win. John Hauser led a 1-2-3 sweep in the 200 free, going 1:37.94. He also added a 44.29 win in the 100 free for the Nittany Lions.
Nate Savoy continued to dominate the backstrokes as he has this season, going 48.43 in the 100 and 1:47.90 in the 200, winning both by a longshot. He also took second in the 200 IM to teammate Scott Heil.
Savoy joined James Wilson, Shane Ryan and Shane Austin on the winning 200 medley relay. The team went 1:28.34 to run away with things. Ryan, Austin, Hauser and Matt Stasiunas went 2:59.43 at the end of the meet for one more relay win in the 400 free event.
Ryan added two individual wins to his two relays – he went 20.20 in the 50 free and 48.96 in the 100 fly.
Thomas Duvall put up a tough fight at home for the Navy Midshipmen, winning the 1000 free in 9:19.89 and coming back to take the 500 in 4:31.05, just beating out Penn State’s Stasiunas.
The closest race of the day might have been the 100 breast, where Navy’s Sean Murphy went out fast and dug deep to touch out the Nittany Lions’ Wilson 55.31 to 55.43. Navy got another touchout win in the 200 breast, this time from Luke Hoffer, who went 2:01.39 to Chris Cipolla‘s 2:01.52.
The teams split the diving events, with Navy’s Ben Freedman triumphant on 1-meter by just .6 points over Penn State’s TJ Schenkel and Schenkel getting revenge with a 355.43 win on 3-meter.
Jonathan Debaugh won the 200 fly for Navy after coming in second to Penn State’s Ryan in the 100 fly.