WEST POINT, N.Y. -- The Navy women's swimming and diving team extended the longest winning streak in Army-Navy history with a 172.5-127.5 win over the Black Knights, Friday evening at Crandall Pool in West Point, N.Y. The Mids have now defeated their academy counterparts in 34 consecutive seasons.
The meets were part of the Army-Navy Star Series, presented by USAA.
"I am very proud of the way we stood up and raced tonight," said Navy women's swimming head coach John Morrison. "There were lots of opportunities for changes of momentum and emotion to occur, but we didn't let that happen. I am especially proud of how hard we fought in the last few strokes of each race.
"We came up here with a goal. We achieved it and learned a lot about ourselves. We can't wait to race again."
"First of all, congratulations to the Army men's swimmers and divers for the great meet they had," said Navy men's swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "We did not perform up to our expectations, and I take full responsibility for that. This is a terrific group of young men and leaders. We will learn and grow from this experience and will be better in the future."
"What an amazing performance by our the divers," said Navy diving coach Rich MacDonald. "It was a total team effort. We knew we were up against the best Army team that I have faced. It was great to win two events, but it was the efforts that led to additional high placings that made the difference. These athletes have been working so hard to prepare for this meet and it does not always end this way. I am happy they got to show off and get the rewards of their labor."
The Navy women's team won the first four events of the evening. Mackenzie Kim won the three-meter diving event with a score of 267.15, then the Mids won the 200 medley relay. A timing system issue made the times invalid, but the placings held. A break of nearly an hour followed as the system was repaired, after which the men's 200 medley relay race was held.
Due to the timing issues, all times listed in the story remain unofficial as of Friday at 10:45 p.m.
The first individual swimming event of the meet saw Sarah Eldridge and Rachel Schlemmer go 1-2 in the 1000 freestyle. Eldridge posted a time of 10:10.64 to win the race by nearly four seconds over Schlemmer. Navy's run of success ended following Cameron Horner winning the 200 freestyle in a time of 1:47.70.
Navy picked up one more victory in the first half of the meet when Caroline Irwin won the 200 fly in a time of 1:57.66. She touched the wall almost three seconds ahead of teammate Abbie Sullivan, who finished second.
The first win for the Mids in the second half of the meet came from Gabi Baldwin, who posted a 1:57.25 to win the 200 backstroke. Horner followed by winning her second event of the night, the 500 free. She won the race in a time of 4:52.00. Irwin matches Horner's victory total by winning the 100 fly in a pool record time of 53.15. The previous standard was 53.40 and set two years ago by Navy's Sydney Harrington.
Lauren Walsh closed out the individual event portion of the meet by winning the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:00.48.
The Mids then posted a time of 3:22.57 to win the 400 freestyle relay.
