Oct. 30, 2007

The first month of the 2007-08 swimming and diving season is in the books. Navy dominated the weekly award categories once again, taking home three awards for the second consecutive week. Divers Olaf Olson and Katie Griffin earned their second consecutive diver of the week accolades, while sophomore swimmer Adam Meyer garnered male swimmer of the week honors. American senior Meghan Thiel won her sixth career female swimmer of the week award.

Patriot League Swimming and Diving Release - 10.30.07
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Male Swimmer of the Week
Adam Meyer, Navy So., Bethesda, Md.
Meyer turned in an impressive performance against UMBC last weekend. The sophomore recorded individual wins in three events to help the Mids to a victory. He swam a 1:54.04 200 IM, a 1:53.00 200 Butterfly and a 2:09.72 200 Breaststroke. He is now 11-3 in races so far this season.

Female Swimmer of the Week
Meghan Thiel, American Sr., Arlington, Va.
Thiel opened the season with a bang this past weekend in a non-scoring meet with GW and Catholic. The senior finished first in five individual events to lead the AU swimmers. She swam the 200 Breaststroke for the first time and finished first, also earning a spot at eight on the all-time top-10 chart in that event at AU.

Male Diver of the Week
Olaf Olson, Navy Fr., Bainbridge Island, Wash.
Olson earns his second consecutive diver of the week award following another solid performance this past weekend. In a meet against America East preseason-favorite UMBC, the freshman scored 288.90 in the one meter event and 302.03 in the three meter event to push his record to 9-1 so far this season.

Female Diver of the Week
Katie Griffin, Navy Sr., Ellicott City, Md.
Griffin wins her second consecutive diver of the week award to begin the 2007-08 season. In last week's meet against 2007 America East Champion UMBC, Griffin recorded scores of 276.53 in the one meter event and 307.43 in the three meter event to remain unbeaten on the season.

Honorable Mention

Tara Chapmon, Navy
So., Virginia Beach, Va.
Chapmon won the 200 Free and 500 Free in the dual meet against UMBC, and also swam the third leg of the first-place 400 Free Relay team.

Patriot League Notebook

Friendly Faces
This weekend will mark the first time during the 2007-08 season that Patriot League teams will be competing in the same pool. Lehigh hosts Colgate and Navy, while Army travels to Holy Cross for a dual meet. This coming weekend will also mark the return to action for Bucknell and Lafayette, who have been idle for the past few weeks.

Quotable
"I am very pleased with the win. I told the girls at the start of the day that they needed to compete through the final event because it was going to come down to that last race. I am pleased with the effort and the fight they displayed. We had a lot of great swims and our divers played a big role in today's outcome."
~Navy Women's Swimming and Diving Head Coach John Morrison after the win over UMBC

"For our men, today was a good building block. This is something that is going to give our guys a lot of confidence. We are improving in almost every area and are very close to where we want to be as we go into the next couple of meets. Our women stayed tough. We were consistent and had our opportunities during the meet. I think if a couple things had gone differently, it could have been much closer."
~Army Head Coach Mickey Wender after the Black Knights' dual meet with UMass

Want to Know More?
The 2008 NCAA Qualifying marks can be found on the sidebar of the Patriot League Swimming and Diving website.

A Few Lanes Away
The 2008 Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championship meet will take place Thurs. - Sat., Feb. 21-23 at Lejeune Hall on the campus of Navy. The meet will begin at 10 a.m. on each of the three days of competition.

Team Notebooks

American
The Eagles opened up their season by competing against Catholic University and George Washington this past weekend. The Eagles fared quite well in the non-scoring event, as 13 AU swimmers won individual events. Dan Nagelberg led the men's team with three individual victories in the 200 IM, 400 IM and 1,650 Free, while senior Meghan Thiel earned victories in the 500 Free, 200 Free, 1,650 Free, 200 Breast and 400 IM. American will return to the pool for a Patriot League meet at Navy with Bucknell and Lafayette on Nov. 10.

Army
The Black Knights welcomed UMass to the West Point pool on Saturday and split the dual meet with the Minutemen. The Army men recorded a 165-135 victory thanks to the help of junior Jeff Tolbert, who finished first in the 200 Free, 500 Free and 400 Free Relay. The women suffered their first defeat of the season by a 164-136 margin. Freshman Corrine Payne earned three individual wins for Army. The Black Knights take on Holy Cross in their next meet this Friday.

Bucknell
Bucknell will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Pittsburgh for a dual meet with Duquesne.

Colgate
The Raiders had last week off from competition, and will return to the pool for a Patriot League meet at Lehigh with Navy on Saturday.

Holy Cross
The Crusader men earned their first win of the season with a 128-113 decision over Springfield College. Sophomore Michael Dougher won three races, including the 50-yd IM. The women were defeated by Springfield College, 127-116. Sophomore Alisha Carrazza finished first in the 200yd and 100yd Free events.

Lafayette
The Leopards were idle last week, and will travel to Seton Hall this weekend for a meet with the Pirates, Georgetown and Loyola (Md.).

Lehigh
The Mountain Hawks competed twice this past weekend, with both the men and women losing meets with West Chester and Connecticut. Lehigh will host Colgate in Patriot League action this Saturday on the men's side, while the women will take on Colgate and Navy.

Navy
The Navy men and women completed another sweep this past weekend in their dual meet at UMBC. In a matchup between last year's Patriot League men's and women's champions and America East men's and women's champions, the Midshipmen came out with the upper-hand. Adam Meyer led the charge for the men, winning the 200 IM, 200 Butterfly and 200 Breaststroke events. For the women, swimmer Tara Chapmon won two individual and one relay event, while diver Katie Griffin earned first place in the one and three-meter events.