Navy vs. Princeton
- Saturday, January 4th, 2020
- LCM
- Dual Meet Format
- Full Results
- Scores: Navy 171, Princeton 129
Three men earned two individual event wins each as the Navy men defeated Princeton, 171-129, in a long course dual meet over the weekend.
After Navy opened up the day by winning the 400 medley relay in 3:47.74, Luke Johnson got the individual events going with a win in the 800m free (8:14.98). Johnson would later complete the distance sweep with a 4:02.10 victory in the 400m free.
Ethan Tack added a pair of wins in the 200 fly (2:03.61) and the 200 IM (2:06.00). The latter event saw the tightest race of the day, as Princeton’s Raunak Khosla touched just behind Tack in 2:06.03.
The Midshipmen also stacked up the points on the diving boards, led by Bradley Buchter sweeping the two events with a 330.23 in the 1m and 362.18 in the 3m.
Princeton’s headliner was Corey Lau, who came tantalizingly close to the OT cut in the 100 breast, winning with a 1:03.30. However, according to the Princeton press release, Lau would later time trial the event, and earned his cut by shaving off 0.01s from his earlier swim, tying the cut with a 1:03.29.
Navy Release
ANNAPOLIS, Md. –– The Navy men’s swimming and diving team (10-2) won the first four events to take a lead it would not relinquish in an eventual 171-129 victory over Princeton (5-1), Saturday at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis.
The meet was contested in long course meters (50-meter length pool).
“Both teams entered the meet following a similar stretch of training,” said Navy men’s swimming head coach Bill Roberts. “Knowing how close the past few meets have been (Princeton won the last two years by a total of seven points) along with where we both were in training, we anticipated nothing less than another exciting day of racing.”
After the Mids won the 400 medley relay race to start the meet, Luke Johnson (Jr., Charlotte, N.C.) posted a time of 8:14.98 to win the 800 freestyle relay. The Navy lead continued to grow as Jack Dunworth (Jr., Austin, Texas) won the 200 freestyle (1:53.09) before Dominick Wallace (Jr., La Jolla, Calif.) and Caleb Mauldin (So., Chesapeake, Va.) placed first (58.11) and second (58.46), respectively, in the 100 backstroke. Those results pushed the Navy advantage out to 52-22.
“We were fortunate to open the meet the way we did and really felt any of those early races could have gone either way both on paper and in the water,” said Roberts.
Princeton would earn its first win of the meet in the 100 breaststroke, but Navy swimmers claimed second, third and fourth places in the race to limit the advantage in the event for the Tigers to 10-9.
Ethan Tack (So., Dix Hills, N.Y.) followed by winning the 200 fly for Navy (2:03.61).
Princeton won the ensuing three swimming events, the 50 and 100 freestyle and 200 backstroke, but Navy swimmers placed first and second in each of the next two races. James Lee (Fr., La Canada, Calif.) and Chris Bondarowicz (Jr., Scotch Plains, N.J.) were the top-two finishers in the 200 breaststroke (2:18.40, 2:19.33, respectively), then Johnson (4:02.10) won and Dunworth (4:03.23) placed second in the 400 freestyle.
“We anticipated Princeton would not back down at any point as they were able to close out the first round of events with a win in the 50 free then opened up the second round with two more wins,” said Roberts. “We are very happy with the way our team responded at this point in the meet.”
Navy’s final victory in the swimming events came from Tack as he won the 200 individual medley (2:06.00).
“Ethan had one of his best meets of his career today,” said Roberts. “We asked a lot of him with his event lineup along with who he was going to be racing against today. He has been working incredibly hard this year and very much earned the win in his two individual races.”
Bradley Buchter (Sr., Hickory, N.C.) had another strong day in the diving events as he won both boards by a combined total of 115 points. Mids additionally placed second and fifth in the one-meter event and second and third in the three-meter competition.
Both Navy teams will compete Jan. 11 at North Carolina. The Tar Heels are ranked 22nd nationally in the men’s poll and 16th in the country in the women’s voting.
Princeton Release
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The Princeton University men’s swimming & diving team competed in its first meet of the 2020 calendar year at the U.S. Naval Academy Saturday on a day that saw Corey Lau qualify for the Olympic trials in the 100-meter breaststroke and the Tigers win six events.
The meet, contested in long course meters, saw Lau join Raunak Khosla and Derek Cox along with post-grad Hu-Van Wright as Tigers currently qualified for the Olympic trials.
While Lau finished first in the 100-breaststroke during the meet, his time of 1:03.30 seconds missed fell just .01 seconds short of the Olympic trial qualifying time. After the meet he would compete in a time trial and touch the wall at 1:03.29 seconds to earn his spot at the Olympic Trials.
Along with Lau, Charles Leibson also had an impressive day for the Tigers as he won both the 50 and 100 freestyle events. In the 50 freestyle he clocked in at 23.77 and in the 100 freestyle he posted a time of 52.30 to earn a pair of wins. Wade O’Brien also won the 200 backstroke, touching the wall at 2:05.94 seconds.
The 100 butterfly proved to be a strong event for Princeton as it earned the top three-finishes thanks to Nicholas Lim(55.11), Khosla (55.34) and Cox (55.88).
The Tigers would also pick up a victory in the 400 freestyle relay; the quartet of Cox, Jon Spires, Nathan Yates and Colin Reilly clocked in at 2:56.74 seconds to secure the win.
Up Next
Princeton will host Villanova University in a dual meet inside DeNunzio Pool on Friday, January 10 at 4 p.m.