Navy Swimming & Diving Home One Last Time in Lejeune Hall

Mids to face Penn Saturday in final home dual meet

	Katie Griffin

Jan. 25, 2006

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy's final home swimming and diving dual meets of the season will take place Saturday when the Midshipmen play host to Penn in Lejeune Hall. The women's dual between the teams is slated to begin at 12 noon, with the men's meet to follow at 3 p.m.

Both of the Navy squads will be looking to bounce back from a pair of losses to Cornell and Yale in their last contests nearly two weeks ago. The decisions dropped the record for the Navy women to 6-5 on the season, while the men's program fell to marks of 9-3 mark on the year and 2-3 against Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League opponents.

Aubra Thomas (Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Katie Griffin (So., Ellicott City, Md.) both won a pair of events for the Navy women's team against the Big Red and the Bulldogs. Thomas swept the two breaststroke events, setting a pool record of 1:05.58 in winning the 100 breast and recording a 2:22.89 in claiming the 200 breast, while Griffin swept the two diving events to raise her record on the season to a combined 18-4.

On the men's side, Joe Smutz (Sr., Marriottsville, Md.) swept the sprint freestyle events for the eighth time this season, winning the 50 free in a time of 20.65 and the 100 free with a clocking of 45.40. Also winning a pair of events on the day for Navy was diver Kevin Teague (Jr., Lexington, Ky.), who won the two boards by a combined 50 points.

Penn swept the dual meet with Navy last year in Philadelphia, winning the women's meet by a score of 175-124 and the men's meet by a score of 130-113. Penn's men's team enters the weekend with a 7-5 record on the season and is 2-4 in Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League duals, while the women's team has posted a 9-5 mark on the season.

"We expect to see a very close meet on Saturday," said Navy men's head coach Bill Roberts. "Both teams have been steadily improving this semester. As in each of the past two seasons, I have no doubt that this meet will not be decided until the final few events."