Feb. 20, 2008
2008 Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championship Page
Navy hosts the Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championships for the sixth time in League history. The event will be held Thursday, February 21 through Saturday, February 23 at Lejeune Hall in Annapolis, Md.
The Patriot League welcomes back several student-athletes who have been honored with Patriot League awards at previous championship meets. For the men, Army senior swimmer Jake Mentele has the highest career individual point total at the Patriot League championships, and has won multiple weekly awards during the course of the 2007-08 season. Navy's Adam Meyer also will be looking to build upon his success from the regular season. Bucknell's Luke Trafton, the 2007 Patriot League Rookie of the Meet, returns as well. On the boards for the men, Army's Greg Sievers looks to become the first Army diver to win Diver of the Meet since 2001.
On the women's side, two-time Patriot League Swimmer of the Meet (2005, 06), Meghan Thiel of American, will attempt to regain the award after coming close in 2007. Last year's rookie of the meet, Navy's Mallory Dietrich, will also return to the pool in '08. A strong contingent of swimmers from Colgate, Lafayette and Navy will all challenge for individual awards throughout the course of the three-day meet. In the diving events, Navy's Katie Griffin will look to win her second-consecutive Diver of the Meet award, but will be challenged by Army's Lindsey Adao, who will look to return the award to West Point for the fifth time in six years.
The Navy men and women will look to defend their team titles after sweeping the championship in 2007. The Navy men currently rank sixth in the nation in the CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major Dual Meet Rankings, while the women are currently second in the nation in the same poll. Joining the Mids in the poll are the Army men at No. 15, the Bucknell men at No. 22 and the Bucknell women at No. 15.
During regular-season competition this year, just one Patriot League record was broken. Colgate's Caren Guyett broke the record in the 200 Fly at the Nike Invitational back in November, swimming the race in a time of 2:02.36. The previous record had been 2:02.77.
Preliminaries will begin each morning at 10:30 a.m., and finals will begin each evening at 6 p.m. For more information, including a complete schedule of events and live results, please visit the following championship link, which can also be found on the Patriot League's Swimming and Diving webpage sidebar.
For those parents or fans who will be traveling to Navy this weekend for the event, please be aware that you must park at Navy's Marine Corps Stadium and ride the shuttle bus to and from Lejeune Hall. Fans and parents will not be allowed to drive onto and park on Navy's campus.
2008 Patriot League Swimming and Diving Championship Page
