Navy vs Richmond (Women) vs Columbia (Men)
- January 24, 2025
- Annapolis, Md.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Courtesy: Navy Sports
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The Navy swimming and diving teams closed their dual meet seasons by posting a pair of victories Friday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis. The men’s team (11-4) won the last two events of the meet to edge Columbia (2-5), 153-147, and the women’s team (9-5) won 14 events to defeat Richmond (0-4), 154-135.
“I am super happy for the team,” said men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “It took a total team effort for us to get the win. Going into the meet we knew this would be a close one and anticipated it going down to the last event. I could not be more proud of the team with their working through the nuances of the meet and the score going back and forth by staying within themselves and not trying to win the meet in one event. They kept focusing being better in each of their next events and that mindset worked well.”
“We were very pleased with our overall performance for a Friday afternoon,” said women’s swimming head coach John Morrison. “Everyone stepped up to send off our seniors with a good win over a tough Richmond team.”
The men’s meet was not decided until the final event of the day, the 400 free relay. Navy built what would prove to be the largest lead of the meet for either team at 104-84. Columbia promptly won the next four events to take a 137-127 lead with just two events remaining.
Navy’s Juan Mora won the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:49.93 to edge Columbia’s Beri Yang for the victory by one-tenth of a second. Yang led by 11-hundrdths of a second after the butterfly and by two-hundredths of a second after both the backstroke and breaststroke legs of the event.
Mora’s effort, combined with his teammates Stephen Aguirre and Luca Oliva placing third and fifth, respectively, in the race, drew the Mids to within 143-140. That meant Navy had to win the 400 free relay to claim the victory. Any other result and Columbia would win the meet.
Columbia swimmers led at the 50, 100, 150 and 200-yard time checks. Navy’s third swimmer in the water, Ben Stankovich closed the gap to one one-hundredth of a second after the first half of his race, then finished his effort with an advantage of just over eight-tenths of a second. This left anchor swimmers Simon Thompson from Navy and Zion James from Columbia to battle it out.
Thompson led James by just over one-half of a second after 50 yards, but James kept closing as the race wore on. The two were pretty much neck-and-neck and stroke-for stroke down the stretch. Thompson out-touched James by sixth-hundredths of a second for the event win and account for the sixth and final lead change in the team scoring. The Mids also placed third in the race.
Navy began the meet by winning the 200 medley relay. After Columbia won the 1000 free and 200 free, Ben Irwin led a 1-2 finish for Navy in the 100 back with his winning time of 49.40. Mora earned his first victory of the day by placing first in the 100 breast (54.42) by one-half of a second. The second half of the meet started with Austin Lockhart (44.93) leading a 1-2-3 sweep for the Mids in the 50 free. Irwin followed by winning the 200 back (1:46.53) by three-tenths of a second to give the Mids the 104-84 advantage.
“You have to give a lot of credit to the guys who won a bunch of close races,” said Roberts. “To mention just one individual, Juan in the 200 IM. It was a very close event. Juan just really stayed within himself on the last two legs and got his hand to the wall first to give us a chance to win with the relay. We felt we had the relay that could win the meet for us, but we couldn’t do that without the 200 IM results.”
There was far less drama in the women’s meet as Navy won the first nine events of the afternoon.
Winning multiple events were Maddie Koutavas, 100 breast (1:03.9) and 200 breast (2:17.50); Catherine Weaverling, 100 fly (52.52) and 200 fly (2:05.02); and Mackenzie Kim, one-meter (290.18) and three-meter diving (328.50).
Caroline Irwin shared the victory in the 50 free with teammate Jennifer Luong (24.20) and won the 100 fly outright (57.12).
Also winning events were Marin Rose, 1000 free (10:27.20); Samantha Clifford, 200 free (1:52.33); Allie Maloney, 100 back (57.96); and Elsie Delacruz, 200 IM (2:06.65).
The Mids bookended the meet with victories in the 200 medley and 400 free relays.
“Our seniors did a great job of racing with several –– Catherine, Caroline, Jennifer –– earning individual wins and our all-senior relay team ending the meet on a high,” said Morrison. “The underclass followed their lead with Maddie bringing home wins in the breaststrokes, Marin in the 1000, Allie in the 100 and Elsie in the 200 IM. And we received two big scores from Mackenzie in diving.
“We are in a good spot heading into the championship portion of our season.”
The Navy teams will compete Feb. 1 at the Bucknell Invitational.
Courtesy: Richmond Athletics
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The University of Richmond’s swimming and diving team competed against Navy at Lejeune Hall and fell, 165-135, in the dual meet Friday afternoon.
The Spiders finished the day with six gold-medal finishes. Highlighting the day was junior Katie Chignell, who finished first in the 500 free (5:04.83) and the 200 IM (2:08.25) with season-best times in both races.
Senior Carstyn Klosterman finished first in the 200 back with a season-best time of 2:05.02.
In the 100 fly, sophomore Erin Budde touched the wall with a season-best time of 59.08.
The Spiders won the 400 free relay (A) at 3:29.92. Swimming the relay were sophomore Presley Baber (53.12), sophomore Melissa Nwakalor (51.89), junior Julia Krichev (53.26), and freshman Lena Amare (51.65).
In the diving competition, junior Tess Weatherhead took gold in the 1-meter dive with a personal-best score of 254.70 points.
The Spiders also saw several season-best times in the water today from freshman Carys Edgar, Baber, and Klosterman. Edgar finished the 200 fly at 2:14.24, Baber swam the 100 free in 53.00, and Klosterman added another season best in the 200 IM with a time of 2:12.50.
In diving, Weatherhead also led in the 3-meter dive, finishing second with 271.50 points.
Richmond is back in action tomorrow for its final dual meet of the season against James Madison. Diving begins at 10 a.m., followed by swimming at 12 p.m.
Courtesy: Columbia Athletics
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — In a meet that came down to the final relay, the Columbia men’s swimming and diving team was narrowly defeated by the Navy Midshipmen on Friday afternoon in Maryland. The Lions had a ton of great performances, but in the end Navy escaped with a 153-147 win.
All day Columbia and the Midshipmen were neck-and-neck with the final event of the day, the 400 free relay, set to decide the final result. The Lions’ A-relay team consisting of Adam Wu, Sam Eckert, Isaac Beers, and Zion James gave an incredible effort, but ultimately came up five-hundredths of a second short of the victory.
Stephen Zhukov had a great day, getting things started with a win in the 1000 free which was the first individual event of the day. His time of 9:16.64 was three seconds better than the rest of the field. Later in the day, he won the 500 free with a time of 4:31.65.
Wu also won two events, with the first being the 200 free thanks to a time of 1:37.28. He would go on to win the 200 fly with a time of 1:48.80.
Impressively, James and Eckert tied for first in the 50 free with the same exact time of 20.34.
Joshua Corn won the 200 breast with a time of 1:59.28.
Joseph Nicol has an excellent day to lead the divers. First, he won the 1m boards with a score of 322.95. Then, he would go on to place second on the 3m boards with a score of 326.03.
“Some quality dives from everyone,” Head Diving Coach Scott Donie said. “A career best score for Will on the 1m. And Joe was outstanding in the same event. We are excited to get back to work for our final dual meet of the season next weekend at Dartmouth!”
Full results from the meet, including all of the Lions’ top performers and times, can be found HERE.
Columbia will close out the regular season next week with a meet against Dartmouth in Hanover on Saturday, February 1 at 11 a.m.
