Feb. 3, 2011

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy men's swimming and diving team will place its six-meet winning streak on the line this week with a pair of challenging road meets. The Mids will compete Friday at Columbia before traveling to face Princeton on Saturday. Each of the two meets will start at 2 p.m.

The Mids have posted a 9-1 record this season and have not lost a meet since dropping a 156-136 decision at Virginia in late October. Included in their current run of success have been wins over Bucknell, Army, Maryland and Yale.

Columbia has posted a 5-2 record this season. Three of the wins for the Lions this year have been victories over Bucknell, Army and Yale.

Navy defeated Columbia by the score of 158-131 last year in Lejeune Hall. The Lions won the opening 200 medley relay that day by six-tenths of a second, but the Mids responded by placing first, second and third in four of the next five events and in seven events during the entire meet.

Erik Hunter (Sr., Placerville, Calif.), Mac Anthony (Jr., Allentown, Pa.) and Mark Meyer (Jr., Bethesda, Md.) all won a pair of individual events for the Mids against the Lions last year. Hunter won the 400 and 800 freestyle races, Anthony won the 100 and 200 freestyle races and Meyer won the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly events.

Columbia's Adam Powell, winner of the 50 free against the Mids last season, and Jason Collazo, who won the one-meter diving event during the meet, both return for the Lions this year.

Princeton has compiled a 4-1 record this season. One of the victories for the Tigers this year was a win over Yale.

The 2010 Navy-Princeton meet was cancelled due to one of the winter storms that hit the Mid-Atlantic region. The Tigers posted a 155.5-144.5 victory over the Mids when the teams last squared off two seasons ago in Annapolis.

"Both meets this week will be challenging for us," said Navy swimming head coach Bill Roberts. "Each team possesses multiple swimmers ranked very high nationally. Additionally, it is an opportunity to race two teams, in their home pools, who are both performing very well at this time."

While the Navy swimming team has not taken part in a meet for two weeks, Hayden Jones (Fr., Spring, Texas) spent this week competing at the U.S. Diving Winter National Meet at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center on the Iowa campus in Iowa City, Iowa. Jones placed sixth in the quarterfinals of the one-meter event with a score of 327.60 and 14th in the quarterfinals of the three meter with 390.40 points.

The top-18 divers on both boards advanced to the semifinal round of diving. He would place 10th on the one meter Wednesday with a score of 326.50 points. Jones was unable to take part in the next respective round of diving on either board due to his traveling back to the East Coast to compete in Navy's meet Friday at Columbia.

"Hayden dove really well this week against the best divers in the country," said Navy diving coach Joe Suriano. "He was leading the one meter after three rounds of the trials and bounced back well from his two misses on the three meter. Hayden then was tremendous on the one meter Wednesday. He started out on fire and missed on just one of his dives. He has a knack for diving well in the biggest meets."

By virtue of his placement on the one meter Wednesday, Jones has qualified for the semifinal round of the event at the U.S. Diving Championship that will be held August 9-14 at UCLA.