An extended two-day meet between Navy, Notre Dame and Princeton ended with the Irish and Tigers defeating both of the Navy swimming and diving teams Saturday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.
The men’s meet saw Notre Dame (4-1), which is ranked 23rd nationally, defeat Navy (8-3), 234-119, Princeton (6-2) defeat the Mids, 252-101, and the Irish defeat the Tigers, 208-145. In the women’s meet, Notre Dame (3-2) beat Navy (7-3), 279-74, the Tigers (6-2) defeated the Mids, 278-75, and Princeton defeated the Irish, 188-165.
“This was an exciting and special two-day event for the Navy swimming and diving program,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “We have had a very competitive meet with Princeton for over 100 years now. With the addition of Notre Dame this year, these past two days showed how fun and exciting this new format can be for all three programs.”
“Overall, we had some terrific performances. Our approach was to continue to see improvement, especially in areas in which we feel we have a lot more room to grow. I thought we showed some gains in some of the technical areas yet still need to keep going as we are not close to being a finished product at this time. We look forward to another strong week of training coupled with a very competitive meet ahead of us next Saturday.”
“We did very well against some formidable opponents,” said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald. It was good for us to see what we need to be doing on the big stage. It is back to work as we continue to get ready for the championship portion of our season.”
Members of the Navy men’s team totaled two second-place finishes on Saturday. Jackson Schultz (Sr., Millersville, Md.) posted a time of 1:56.60 to finish second by two seconds in the 200 breaststroke, and Jonah Harm (Jr., Placerville, Calif.) tallied a time of 47.24 to finish just seven-hundredths of a second in back of the event winner in the 100 butterfly. Navy teammate Patrick Colwell (Jr., New Canaan, Conn.) placed fourth in the 100 fly.
Lauren Walsh (Fr., Shelton, Conn.) was the top finisher in Saturday for the Navy women’s team. She placed fourth in both the 200 breaststroke (2:14.46) and 200 individual medley (2:02.50) races.
The Navy men’s team will play host to Columbia on Saturday, the same day the Navy women’s team competes at James Madison.