Army won 12 events, but in seven of its 11 individual event victories the Mids placed second, third and fourth, thereby losing only one point (10-9) in each to the Black Knights.
Army won the first seven events of the meet to take a 75-56 advantage. Navy climbed back into the meet by claiming the top-three spots in the three-meter diving event. Mackenzie Kim scored 274.95 points to win the event, Lily Barrett placed second with 258.15 points and Izzy Olson followed in third place with 239.78. That drew the Mids to within six points at 78-72.
The Black Knights regained a 101-87 lead after the 100 free and 200 back events, then Lauren Walsh posted a time of 2:12.04 to win the 200 breast by one-quarter of a second. Her efforts made it a 106-101 Army lead. The 500 free followed and the Mids placed second, third and fourth to fall behind by six points, but it was a 129-116 score after the Black Knights claimed the top-two finishers in the 100 fly.
Kim came through again as she totaled 279.30 points to win the one-meter board. Also, Barrett placed third and Olson fourth and it was a 134-130 Army lead with two events left. The Black Knights placed first and fifth in the 200 individual medley to set the stage for a dramatic 400 free relay.
Army led 144-139 heading into the 400 free relay. Navy needed to win and also place either second or third to win the meet. Should the Mids have won the race and the Black Knights finished both second and third, the teams would have ended the meet in a 150-150 tie.
Navy received the start it wanted as Erin Miller and Viviana Vergara-Anglim had the Mids in first and second place, respectively, after 100 yards. The second Mids in the water, Allie Maloney and Samantha Clifford, also exited with Navy in first (1:41.00) and second (1:42.34) ahead of Army's third-place clocking of 1:43.40. Navy's Ana Fleming was in the water next and she finished her 100 yards with her team in first place with a 2:32.28 time. The race for second became tighter as Julianne McCranie gave her team of Mids a second-place time of 2:33.45, just ahead of Army's clocking of 2:34.02.
That left anchor swimmers freshman Kaitlyn Landers and senior team captain Sarah Eldridge to try and keep the Mids on pace. After 50 yards, Landers was in first place (2:56.05), but Army had taken over second (2:57.33) ahead of Eldridge's team (2:57.87). Landers would touch the wall with her team having a collective time of 3:22.00, Army's team finished in second place (3:22.81) and the foursome that included Eldridge was in third place in a time of 3:24.72, which was 3.5 seconds ahead of the fourth-place finishing Army team.
"We knew that we had to keep it close by scoring three in each event and placing two of three possible scoring relays," said Morrison. "Fortunately, the divers were able to push us over the top with some incredible performances on the boards. Our seniors did an amazing job of leading from the front. We could not be more proud of their incredible leadership, energy and effort they brought to training preparation for this meet."
"Credit to their team for sticking with it and not giving up at any point during the meet," said Roberts of the Navy women's team. "It did not look good for them at multiple times later and later in the meet, but they just kept doing what they needed to do to push it to the last event. Really just a special final few races with the meet on the line. Hats off to the coaches and the team for finding the will and really digging deep to make that happen. I am not sure if too many teams would have been able to do what they pulled off today."
"Proud of our seniors for leading the way," said Fisher. "Mackenzie winning both boards and leading a sweep on the three meter and then a 1-3-4-5 finish on the one meter was a great demonstration of our depth."
