Welcome to Navy Sports Central - The Official Podcast of the Navy Sports Nation!
In today's episode, you'll get a complete update you on the Army-Navy Star Series, where in the month of February we saw some truly exceptional performances and record-breaking moments.
On the biggest weekend of the Star Competition all year, outstanding Navy athletes stepped up when it really counted. You will hear about all their terrific efforts on the rifle range, the track and on the gymnastics floor.
In our Deep Dive segment, I sit down with Coach John Morrison, who gives us some great insight into the Navy Women's Swimming and Diving team and its history of sustained superior performance over the years. We chat about how adaptability and collaboration has played a huge role in establishing such an impressive record in the Patriot League. These behind-the-scenes details will leave you with a new appreciation for the role of a dedicated coach in shaping champions.
And as always, we will have our Question of the Day and Mid Watch segments. So, stop in for a while and join us!
Related Links:
- Navy Women's Swimming & Diving Beats Army for the 35th Straight Year!
- Navy Finishes Strong In Final Dual Meet of the Season to Beat James Madison
We want your answer to our Question of the Day. Here is the one for this episode:
How many swimmers has Navy Women's Swimming & Diving Coach John Morrison sent to the Olympic Trials?
A.) 6
B.) 9
C.) 11
D.) 12
You can give us your answer on the Navy Sports Nation Group Facebook page.
Follow Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts:
Check out the Navy Sports Nation group page on Facebook!
Music is provided courtesy of Audio Jungle. Artists featured in order:
- Seven In Music (Intro)
- Alexiaction (Deep Dive)
- Loka Music (Question of the Day Lead In)
- Cinematic Alex (Closeout Music)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Karl (00:14):
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host, and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports.
It's already the middle ofFebruary and that means we are
definitely in crunch time whenit comes to the Army Navy Star
Series.
I'll have a complete breakdownfor you in our sports update,
including my take on how theremaining games and matches
(00:35):
might play out, and in our deepdive segment I'll be joined by
Navy women's swimming and divingcoach, john Morrison, who is
busy getting his team ready forthe Patriot League Championships
next week.
All that, plus our question ofthe day and mid-watch segments
are coming your way next, sostick around.
We'll be getting things startedshortly.
Alright, it is great to haveyou with us here on Navy Sports
(01:04):
Central, whether you are aregular listener or new to the
podcast.
Thanks for taking the time.
So today we are going to kickthings off by taking a look at
the Army Navy Star Series.
As you all know, february is theshortest month of the year, but
it's also the month where themids go head to head against the
Black Knights in the mostnumber of sports.
The total number of sports inthe Star Competition is 26, and
(01:26):
7 of them take place in February, so clearly this is a critical
month when it comes todetermining the overall winner.
Whoever wins February has apretty good chance of coming out
on top on the overall series.
Going into the month, army led6-5, with one tie.
In men's soccer, the first 1-13wins this year takes the
competition because of the tie.
Normally it would take 14 wins,and on February 3rd there were
(01:50):
4 stars up for grabs.
So let's take a look at eachsport in the order in which the
teams competed.
First up was the Rifle Team.
They traveled up to West Pointfor this match and, going in,
the Black Knights led theoverall series 47-35.
But the mids had won the lasttwo in a row and four out of the
previous five matches.
They were all pretty close,though, so it was really tough
to predict this one.
One thing that was a virtualcertainty, though, was Navy's
(02:11):
Marleigh Duncan having a strongperformance.
The junior from Wake Forest,north Carolina, was the highest
scorer in each of the mids twoprevious star wins, and this
year was no exception.
She posted a score of 589points out of a possible 600 in
the small bore, and then shefollowed that up with 595 points
in the air rifle, which wasgood for a total of 1184.
Now, as far as the scoring goes, the top four individual scores
in each category count towardsthe overall team total, and that
(02:34):
was the Mids performance in theair rifle that allowed them to
get the separation they needed.
They actually grabbed the topfour spots overall, with
Isabella Baldwin and ClarissaLayland putting up 596 points
each.
Then came Duncan with 595,followed by Deonte Hayes, who
came through with a personalbest of 594 points.
The final score was Navy 5896and Army 5863.
(02:56):
Now, the interesting thing isthat the scores were program
records for both teams in thestar competition.
So it's a real testament to howhard these athletes compete
against each other.
Now that the rifle competitionis completed, the overall star
series was deadlocked at 6-6-1.
At least for the next couplehours anyway.
Right about the time that therifle competition was winding
(03:16):
down, the men's track and fieldteam got things going against
Army at the Wesley A Brown FieldHouse.
Joshua Boamah, who is a seniorfrom San Diego, California, put
up the first five points for themids by winning the weight
throw.
He did that with a schoolrecord of 21.12 meters, which
breaks down to 69 feet 3.5inches, and, by the way, I'll
give you both sets of units too,just in case you like the
(03:38):
English units better.
By the way, Boamah's throwbroke his own record by a tenth
of a meter.
Also, Collin Green placed third, tying his personal best of
20.12 meters, which is about 66feet 1 quarter inch.
Boamah pulled down five morepoints by finishing first in the
shot put, and he did that on asixth and final attempt.
His distance of 18.71 metersbroke a school record that had
(03:59):
stood for over 50 years, and itwas also a new personal best by
half a meter.
Incidentally, that 18.71 meterstranslates to 61 feet 7 and 3
quarter inches.
In the triple jump, jordanPayne and Sebastian Allen
finished 1-2.
Payne posted a jump of 14.59meters, which is 47 feet 10 and
a half inches, and Allen wasright behind him, coming in at
(04:19):
14.42 meters, or 47 feet 3 and 3quarter inches.
Both of those efforts came ontheir final attempt as well, so
they're kind of saving the bestfor last there.
On the track, Brahmir Vick gota terrific jump out of the
blocks in the 60 meter hurdlesand never looked back.
He beat his own school recordby.02 seconds with a time of
7.74.
And just to give you anindicator of Vick's dominance in
(04:40):
this event, he now owns nine ofthe top ten times in Navy track
and field history.
Vick also won the 60 meter dashwith a time of 6.83 seconds,
which is fifth best in programhistory, by the way.
Before I go any further, I wantto give a quick shout out to
Maura Kent for passing along allthese details of the events I'm
covering.
Maura is one of the admins ofthe Navy track and field fans
Facebook group and those of youwho listened to the show may
(05:03):
recall that she was a guest lastsummer when we featured her son
, Nathan, who plays football inaddition to running track.
Now, all that makes for a verynice segue into these next two
events, because the Mids' strongperformance in the sprints
continued, with Nathan pickingup the double in the 200 and 400
meters.
He was a little dinged upduring football season but is in
excellent form now.
Kent's time of 21.
(05:23):
22 in the 200 set a new meetrecord by a tenth of a second,
and he also clocked in at 47.
45 to win the 400 meter dash,and that qualifies as the fifth
best time overall in the program.
The mids also pulled off sweepsin the mile in 3,000 meters,
with Sam Keeney and Murphy Smithpicking up the wins there.
When all the dust had settled,the final score ended up being
Navy 101 Army 78.
(05:44):
It was their fifth straight winover the Black Knights indoors,
and now the mids finally hadthe lead in the star series.
For the first time all year.
It was 7-6-1 in their favor.
Now it was the women's turn totake the track, and right about
the same time the gymnasticsteam was getting ready to square
off against the Black Knightsover at the Halsey Fieldhouse.
Like the men, the womendominated in the sprints.
(06:05):
Sophomore Jia Anderson won boththe 60 meter hurdles and a 60
meter dash with times of 8.36and 7.53 seconds.
Both were new school records,and she also finished second in
the 200 meters and, by the way,that time of 24.18 seconds was
also a school record.
The Mids completed a dominatingperformance in the sprints by
finishing 1-2 in the 400.
Annie Lemelin and TaylorWoodworth put up times of 55.39
(06:28):
and 55.44 to pick up a total of8 points in that event.
Ellie Abraham won the 800meters and the 400 meter relay
team of Susanna Hines, LexiEnsor, Mia- Claire Kezal and
Kayla McGuire turned in anoutstanding performance.
They broke the old meet recordwith a time of 9.
05.
25 to finish in first place byan amazing 13 seconds.
And by the way, just to giveyou a little perspective here,
(06:50):
their winning time converts toroughly an average of 34 seconds
per lap.
That means that the 13 secondmargin of victory translates to
about 76 meters, give or take ahalf a meter or so.
That means when Kayla McGuirecrossed the finish line, the
Army runner still had half thefinal turn plus the entire
straightaway in front of her.
So yeah, I'd say that was apretty impressive win.
The women also won three fieldevents.
(07:11):
Alayna Schroeder finished firstin the pole vault, clearing a
height of 14.01 meters, and thattranslates to 13 feet one and
three quarter inches.
Sami Bollinger took the topspot in the triple jump with a
leap of 12.01 meters, or 39 feetfive inches, and Hannah
Lowenstein took the long jumpwith a winning height of 1.71
meters, which comes out to fivefeet seven and a quarter inches.
(07:33):
The final score was Navy 99,army 82.
And it was also the fifthconsecutive star the women had
picked up, which increased theirlead in the star series to 8, 6
and 1 overall.
Shortly after that resultposted, the gymnastics team made
it 4 for 4 on the day bybeating Army for the sixth
straight year.
But things did not look goodgoing into that meet.
Navy's All-American IsaiahDrake was hurt in practice the
(07:55):
day before, so the Mids werealready down their best
all-around gymnast and the meethadn't even started yet.
It didn't seem to bother themone bit though, because the team
won five out of six rotationsComing out on top in the floor
exercise, palmer Horse, rings,vault and High Bar.
The individual winners wereSian Burr de Gunta and the floor
exercise.
He is having a terrific year,by the way.
(08:15):
Also, riley Rose took first inthe rings, as did Caleb Hickey
in the High Bar.
You know there's a time when thegymnastics star meet was
practically an automatic win forthe Black Knights.
Early on in the rivalry, armywon 19 out of 20 between 1949
and 1969,.
But things started to change in1983 when Navy Athletic
Director Bo Coppedge hired PeterKorman.
(08:35):
Korman was a bronze medalist inthe 1976 Montreal Olympics.
He led the program for sixyears and was a perfect 6-0
against the Black Knights.
Over the last 40 years Navyholds a pretty impressive 28-12
advantage.
Now Army does still lead in theseries.
The score there is 45-41 withtwo ties.
But the fact that the deficitis only four now pretty much
(08:57):
tells you the kind of hole theMids were in when Korman was
hired in 1983.
Current coach Kip Simons has a7-1 record in the star meet.
So Navy could pull even beforetoo much time goes by if they
continue to perform at this highlevel.
The gymnastics win increased theMids' lead to 9-6-1, but Army
was not going to go down quietly.
They ended up winning both thestars in Men's and Women's
(09:18):
Basketball, and last night inwrestling the Mids got edged out
18-17.
And I got to tell you I thoughtthey got robbed in that one,
because in the very last contest, at 149 pounds, navy's Kaeman
Smith looked like he had pulledoff a great upset by pinning his
guy, but the rest just didn'tsee it that way.
A pin would have given the Midsenough points to put him over
the top, but unfortunately thatdidn't happen and they came up
(09:40):
short.
So now this year's competitionis tied up at 9-9-1, with seven
sports to go, and you can counton the rest of the Star Series
being a dogfight from here onout.
Now, I'm not into predictiongame here, because I'm way too
superstitious.
Besides, we all know thatrecords don't matter when it
comes to Army-Navy.
So what I am going to do ispoint out the sports where I
think the Mids have the bestchance of coming away with a win
(10:01):
, and remember they need a totalof 13 to clinch the series.
I'd have to say that the bestopportunities for the Mids to
pick up a couple of wins in thespring are in Men's and Women's
Outdoor Track.
Coach Jamie Cook always seemsto have both teams ready to go,
and I don't expect this year tobe any different.
Both teams are also a littlestronger outdoors because of
their depth.
After Track and Field, I'm kindof leaning towards Men's Tennis
(10:22):
.
Navy has won the last twoPatriot League championships
there, and they've also won thelast couple of star matches
against Army.
Of course, I get that you canthrow the record books away in
these situations, but Army iscoming to Annapolis this year
and the Mids are pretty tough tobeat on their home court.
Now we're up to Men's andWomen's Lacrosse and, quite
frankly, both of those are acoin flip.
Let's go ahead and start withthe men first.
On paper, army probably has anadvantage.
(10:44):
They won the Patriot Leaguelast year, but the same could
have been said in 2021 and 2022.
They had a strong squad in eachof those two years and the Mids
pulled off the upset both times.
Also, navy's got something toprove.
Last season, they were kind ofwrecked by injuries, so if they
can stay healthy this group ofseniors led by Xavier Arline and
Jackson Bonnets they have got agreat opportunity to go out
(11:05):
strong, and one way to do thatis by picking up a big win in
their last star game.
On the women's side, army isalso returning a pretty good
team.
Last year, the Mids lost aheartbreaker to them in double
overtime in the Patriot Leaguesemifinals, and the Black
Knights have won the last twostar games, although Navy did
beat them in the 2022 PatriotLeague tournament, so they got a
little bit of payback there.
Anyway, as far as a star gamegoes, the women are due, so that
(11:28):
, and the fact that this is ahome game, is the reason I give
them a decent chance of winningthis one, and I will be there to
watch that game, so hopefully Idon't jinx them Now.
If Navy doesn't pick up a starthere, the women's tennis team
will have their shot at Army.
And here's another situationwhere both teams are pretty even
.
After the Mids won the star,the last couple of years, army
did come back to beat them inthe Patriot League tournament.
(11:49):
So again, it's another cointoss here.
One sport where it might be alittle bit of an uphill battle
for the Mids is in baseball.
I'm not saying it's a done deal, but if they were to come away
with the star against Army, Ithink it would be a nice bonus.
Chuck Restano is the new Navycoach and the Mids do return
five starters, but they alsolost their top two hitters and
their number one pitcher tograduation.
The star in baseball is decidedby playing a three game series.
(12:13):
Last year the Mids were unableto get into the win column in
any of those games and they wereoutscored 24 to 6.
So it'd be pretty nice to erasethat memory by pulling out a
win.
Okay, that takes care of ourfairly comprehensive sports
update, but please don't goanywhere, because our deep dive
segment is next, where we'll getan up close and personal look
at the Navy women's swimming anddiving team.
(12:34):
Stay with us.
You know, in our last episode Ihad a great conversation with
Navy men's swimming and divingcoach, bill Roberts.
(12:56):
I hope you all had a chance tocheck that out, because we've
got a good look into not onlyone of the elite programs in all
of Navy athletics, but also theentire East region, and you can
say the same about the women'sprogram as well.
They've won a total of 21Patriot League championships,
including the last 10 in a row,so it's only fitting that we
follow up our visit with CoachRoberts by welcoming the women's
coach.
He is in his 20th year leadingthe program and has compiled an
(13:19):
impressive dual meet record of168 and 44.
He's also been named thePatriot League coach of the year
seven times, so I am very happyto have Navy women's swimming
and diving coach John Morrisonjoin us today.
Okay so, coach Morrison, it'sreally great to have you here
with us on Navy Sports Central.
Thanks for taking the time.
Coach Morrison (13:36):
Well, thank you for having me.
It's awesome to be in our sportof swimming.
We don't get to highlight ittoo often.
It's great of you to recognizeus.
Karl (13:45):
Okay, well, no problem at all.
Believe me, I can tell you thatwhen it comes to the sports I
used to watch in the yard, I didsee my share of swim meets and
they were really a lot of fun towatch, awesome, awesome.
So one of the things I notedand I kind of mentioned this
when I was talking with CoachRoberts a couple of weeks ago
the Navy swimming and divingprogram, for both the men and
(14:06):
the women, has been a model ofconsistency for decades and
you've been a big part of thatbecause of the stability you
bring, having been there for 20years and so forth.
So what I want to know is, inthe time that you've been there
and you have just differentathletes that come through the
academy year after year,certainly you want to stay true
(14:27):
to a certain model that you haveto keep that level of
performance up, but are thereany things that you've had to
adapt to over the years to keepthings fresh?
You know, recognizing thatathletes change over time.
Coach Morrison (14:38):
Yeah, I think our training has adapted quite a
bit over time.
Just the scientific approach torest and feeling the body and
those things have changed sodrastically that it's a lot
different than before.
But on an individual, I thinkevery class comes in with their
own personality.
I think they all come in fromdifferent areas of the country,
(15:01):
so our team has a very good wayof pulling each other together
to support one common cause,just like the United States
Naval Academy or just kind of asmaller microcosm of that.
Karl (15:12):
Okay, all right, cool.
Now.
Another question I have kind ofalong those lines is when you
look at how your team isperforming over the course of a
season, or even the course of acouple of seasons, are there any
specific things that you'd lookfor or certain things that you
identify as potential red flagsthat indicate, okay, maybe we're
getting a little bit into a ruthere.
(15:32):
How can you guard against thatand how do you steer clear of
those things?
Coach Morrison (15:35):
Great question.
I think we have to read theathletes on a daily basis.
The interesting part of myposition because I teach and
coach at the same time.
So I teach swimming and then Icoach in the afternoon and
obviously through the varsityprogram, so I get to the
midshipman as a whole, kind offollow the same type of bio
(16:00):
rhythm as I go through and anygiven year, maybe dictated by
leadership and maybe just theattitude in the hall, and to be
able to see that in theclassroom and then also kind of
witness it and pay attention tosome of the maybe a negative
vibe coming from the classroom.
They're a little bit run downand beat up in the classroom
(16:23):
just coming over once a week.
We can certainly see thathappening to our mids as well.
So taking a lot of cues from ourgeneral mid-population,
midshipman population and thenalso moving that into our
program, all the things that welook at for just body language,
(16:43):
attitude coming over to practice.
Fortunately we have a very goodvalue system and we've been
fortunate to have people grow upin the program and respect
those that came before them.
So a lot of legacy that holdsto some of the true values that
we sustain in our program.
One of them is maintaining apositive atmosphere and ask
(17:08):
questions, communicate so opencommunication between the
coaches and the athletes to notonly see how they're feeling on
that day, but also what can wedo as coaching staff, what can
we do to help support you to getbetter as an individual or as a
team?
And it's one of the greatleadership points of our program
here at the academy, across theyard, is having input and
(17:33):
having the student athletesactually be a part of the
solution.
So, given that empowering inthat position and allowing them
to help make adjustments reallykind of hopefully yields hitting
that big slump at any givenseason and hopefully we can get
(17:53):
ahead of the curve, that'scoming Right, right, okay.
Karl (17:58):
So let's get into the game day, or the day of the meet
atmosphere.
One of the things I've alwaysbeen curious about is you and
your staff, and, of course, theteam, put together a plan, a
strategy that you're looking toexecute during the day, and once
the day gets going, maybethings don't track according to
the original plan.
I mean, I'm sure that happensall the time.
(18:18):
So my question is, first of all, can you give us an idea of
what you and your coaches aredoing after the meet has gotten
underway?
And then, secondly, what mighta contingency plan look like if
you had a race or two that justdidn't go as you had anticipated
?
Coach Morrison (18:35):
Yeah, another good question.
This is a.
So a lot of a lot of coach prepgoes into meet preparation in
terms of where we can put people, what their abilities are, of
the other teams.
So there's a lot of researchfrom the other other teams.
The nice thing about our sportis all time related, so you can
(18:55):
see where you're going to.
For the most part, you can seewhere things are going to line
up.
You don't know who's going tobe missing from your opponent,
but you know who you might bemissing due to injury or illness
.
So you have a good idea of howto set a lineup and then allow
the team to know what thatlineup looks like.
And also, if there areadjustments from event to event
(19:16):
we don't hit an event quite theway we'd like we can make those
switches.
We've already had it kind ofgame planned out as to okay,
this is what we're going to doto switch out this person later
in the event in the meat listand hopefully I gain a little
bit more leverage on the on theoverall meat outcome.
Karl (19:34):
Okay, all right, very interesting.
Yeah, I was.
I didn't actually see you whenI was watching the Army Navy
meet, but I was listening toRowdy Gaines and he said that
after that, the very first relay, when you guys touch the wall
first, he was like, oh, coachMorrison is like really fired up
, you know.
So I imagine a good amount ofthat, that time you spend, in
addition to just looking forthose times when you have to
(19:55):
make some adjustments, is just,you know, supporting the
athletes out there as they arecompeting.
Coach Morrison (19:59):
Absolutely.
I mean, it's a you know to tokeep their confidence up and
motivate them, to help them comeup with the best race or best
possible case scenario.
The Army Navy meet is a littledifferent than most.
The emotions are high and it'snot we almost, as coaches at
that point, have to control theemotions or so, then then allow
(20:21):
them just to, just to feed offthem.
So I was more emotional, Ithink, than most of them are at
times, but I think that's a goodthing, because they're
controlling them.
I'm not, but I know I wasexcited that that that first
relay is certainly one in whichyou can really judge a lot from
that first relay because it's amentally relay.
(20:42):
So you see your top swimmer ineach discipline the backstroke,
the breaststroke, the butterflyand freestyle and if you're
competitive or you're winningthat first event in the mentally
relay you you kind of can seethe the cards a little bit later
in the session as those eventscome up as an individual events.
Those, those folks hopefullywill shine.
Karl (21:03):
Okay.
So, speaking to the Army Navymeet in particular, obviously,
anytime you compete in a duelthere's a certain level of
intensity, but you and I bothknow that when it comes to Army,
that's just a whole differentstratosphere.
So the thing that I find isinteresting and I kind of had a
little conversation with CoachRoberts about this as well is
you got freshmen out there whosix months previous they were
(21:26):
just high school seniors, youknow having a good old time, and
six months later they'recompeting against Army and
seemingly they're unfazed.
And and I'm pointing tosomebody like Ella Habyan who
let off your 200 medley relayand had a really strong leg in
the backstroke she won the 100backstroke and looks like she
won the 200 backstroke as well.
So when it comes to what you'veseen over the years with your
(21:48):
freshman performing, have youseen any differences in terms of
how they handle this kind ofpressure and, if so, what do you
attribute that to?
Coach Morrison (21:57):
Good question, I think.
I think some are.
I think everybody's a littlebit different Because we do have
some, some freshman that mightbe a little green at the
national level or that.
That feeling of you know it'sall my shoulders.
But one of the things that thatour team does are pretty good
job at is Helping each otherfind their own success.
(22:19):
So they, they help each other.
You encourage, motivate andknow that if there is a down
swim or not so good swim,they're gonna be.
They had their back regardless.
So it's a, it's kind of a nicesisterhood in that regard in
terms of setting them up.
But I think the the overall, Ithink I do think the young folks
(22:40):
today I say young, much youngerthan I, but the differences I
tend to be I think they areaware of their surroundings a
little bit more, and it might beSocial media, might be just the
way they're teaching in highschool or the way their club
teams and their high schoolteams are happening, so they're
a little bit more aware.
(23:01):
That can be a distraction orVery good.
And in terms of Ella's case, sheis a talented athlete and she
was able to do some incrediblethings.
She broke a league record andher first Army Navy meet.
I'm fastest than anybody hasever gone in our league in the
last 25 years, so that's prettyincredible when you had those,
(23:24):
those level athletes that justknow, on game day, we, they are
just excited to go out performin the environment at the At the
Army Navy meet, like you said,on the front end that's.
That's upper echelon, as rowdygains called it.
It's one of his favorite meetsto come to.
Just because of the excitementand just the sheer emotion of
that meet on both sides of thepool deck from the Army side and
(23:47):
and Navy side is Incredible.
I mean, I've, I've competed inyou know ACC matchups UNC UVA or
UNC Duke and Tennessee when Iwas coaching there.
We go Tennessee against Georgiaor Florida and it was a huge,
huge match.
But there is no level of justunderstanding what the other,
(24:10):
the other opponents, are goingthrough and that that you just
want.
You want to beat your, your,your counterpart on that day,
knowing that for the rest ofyour life you're gonna be
standing shoulder to shoulder.
Karl (24:22):
Right, right, okay.
So this past Army Navy meet acouple of months back Was the
closest that it's been with thewomen since, since you've been
there, and I was wondering ifyou could Identify the one race
that kind of you know.
Once it was over with, you saidokay, we've got a little bit of
(24:42):
breathing room here.
I think we have the separation.
We need to close things outFirst.
About which race was that andcan you give us a little bit of
a recap?
Coach Morrison (24:50):
Yeah.
So I think the mentally relaywas huge.
I always feel.
I think every coach feels alittle bit more confident coming
off that relay like okay, we'rein a good place as a team,
being able to compete, knowingthat they had had some good
distance swimmer Molly Weber upfront in the thousand and they
have a two very good 200freestylers.
(25:14):
I look to those next twostrokes Ella coming back in the
hundred backstroke they'reperforming very well with Megan
Murphy, who's who's been verysolid for us, but she, she
stepped up to a different levelon that day and then our brush
strokeers and then our twoflyers came through as well.
So I think that those threeevents right after the 200
freestyle, as soon as we gotthrough them, that was okay.
(25:36):
We, we are solid, we're gonnakeep this me close.
And what are gonna be our,what's gonna be our?
The separator and our sprinterstepped up that day.
Huge.
Our two seniors, maya Novak andAnna Freeman, and then Maya
Novak and and Hannah Pratt andthe hundred freestyle.
They kind of really Solidify.
(25:58):
I knew at that point when theycame back and they both won
personal best times and thehundred freestyle, I knew they
that we had a good thing going,and then that just followed up
with Ellison and Gabby Baldwin'sone to finish in the two back.
So At that point I I wasn'tbreathing a sigh of relief, but
I knew we're in a good spot tobe able to move through.
(26:19):
So it was about halfway throughthe meat that Met that right,
right, okay, good, good.
Karl (26:25):
So in the post meet interview you spoke to the
energy in Lejeune Hall andbefore I continue I want to
throw out something I had heardyears ago when the I was
watching the special on when theUS hockey team beat the
Russians at the Lake PlacidOlympics and they're
interviewing Al Michaels and hewas describing what it felt like
(26:46):
when they got to go ahead goalwith about ten minutes ago in
the game and he said the placewas just Unbelievable.
He said that's one of thosetimes when sound had a feel to
it.
You know.
So, with that in the back ofyour mind, can you describe what
it's like on the day of theArmy Navy meet, just you know,
after an exciting race or like,for instance, after that medley
(27:09):
relay, what, what is that like?
Coach Morrison (27:14):
Yeah, gosh, it's , it's.
It's surreal.
You, you train for, you know, ayear you're recruiting for two,
three years to get to thatpoint of Competition and and you
have environment.
That that is.
Lejeune Hall is packed to therim.
We got thousand seats, allseats are full and people are
(27:36):
standing in the Vestibules andalong the windows and on deck
and it is electric when you,when you feel it and even mr
Gladjak has been to many asporting event, so it's one of
the most exciting Events they goto and and an experience is
just that whole hype for thatfirst initial send-off of the
(27:59):
relay it you get.
I'm right now I'm getting hairstand up on the back of my neck.
It's just so, so exciting the,the emotion of your team and and
the, the folks be on the otherside of the pool and and just
everything.
Everything's such a high levelof focus and concentration and
(28:19):
excitement that it is electric.
It certainly is electric and meand you just feel that energy
Throughout.
And you know, fortunately ourteam came away with the win this
year.
You said it was the closest,closest one in years and it was.
It was a tight one.
Is we're gonna still have tofight, fight, fight for some
more.
So right, it's always, alwaysfun, it's always fun, but that
(28:42):
they the energy in that thefacility.
And even talking to Rowdy,after no who's Been at every
Olympics for the last, you knowwhatever 15 Olympics me.
We even says that.
You even says it's one of themost electric environments he's
ever been in, because there's somuch pride on the line.
(29:04):
Right for you, for your wholeteam, right, right.
Karl (29:08):
Okay, this is going to be the last question I'm going to
basically ask you to think about.
You have the Patriot Leaguechampionships coming up in less
than a week.
Basically, you start onWednesday.
What are your two toppriorities when it comes to
making sure that your team is asready as they can be to defend
that title?
Coach Morrison (29:24):
I think, set in a tone of confidence that we put
in the work for the years, isour real big top priority.
Just a couple of workouts thatwe go through.
It's kind of race prep, themental prep for those races and
allowing the mind to kind ofjust allow the body I shouldn't
(29:46):
say allow the mind, allow thebody do what it's been trained
to do.
We do a lot of race prep in thelast few days, just kind of
drawing that confidence goinginto the meat From a coaching
staff point of view.
Well, that day to day, thosetwo and a half hour practices,
we're working on that.
But then you know, we just cameout of meeting with my
(30:10):
assistant going through our dayto day every 15 minutes what
we're going to be doing to makesure that we have them fed on
time back at the hotel on time,sleeping on the right time,
given everything that we cancontrol, trying to take all
those variables that we cancontrol and make them the
absolute best for them.
So it's giving them theconfidence, controlling what we
(30:33):
can control and just having alot of fun going down the
stretch, a lot of smiles when westart to rest.
Karl (30:39):
Yeah, yeah.
And I'll say one more thingwhen you're group, you talk
about creating a positiveenvironment.
I mean, those athletes looklike they're having all kinds of
fun, you know when they'recompeting, so that's really
really cool to see.
And I will tell you this it'stimes like when I was watching
the meat on ESPN Plus.
It's times like this where Iwish I didn't live in Arizona.
(31:00):
I wish I was, you know, withina stone's throw of an apple so I
could make there for thosemeats.
But thank goodness that we havethe streaming available so I
can at least be there in spirit.
Coach Morrison (31:11):
Well, we appreciate your support.
Karl (31:13):
There's no doubt about it Right, right, okay, coach, I'm
going to go ahead and closethings out from here.
Listen, thank you so much fortaking the time to join me today
.
I know how busy you are,considering what time of the
year it is, so I reallyappreciate it, and best of luck
as you guys go out there todefend your title next week.
Coach Morrison (31:28):
Well, thanks so much for having me and
supporting our programs, andcome back to LeJune Hall soon.
The 10 meters still open.
Karl (31:37):
Yeah, all right.
Thanks so much, coach.
Bye-bye.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on NavySports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
(31:59):
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheart Radio, it
doesn't matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
directory when it's released andyou can listen to it whenever
you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
(32:20):
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Navy SportsCentral, Karl Darden here with
you, and I'm still lapping alittle like Coach Morrison's
(32:42):
reference to the 10 meterplatform at the end of our deep
dive segment.
For those of you who may not beas familiar with the
requirements at Navy, every midhas to take a semester of
swimming each year and sometimeduring the final year all
seniors have to jump off the 10meter tower.
So when Coach Morrison madethat reference, it reminded me
of a story I'd heard just a fewyears after I graduated.
I'm not sure what year ithappened, but the guy who told
(33:05):
me the story said it involvedsomeone from his company.
This guy was down to his lastcouple of weeks of the semester
and he still hadn't done thetower jump.
So of course the anxietystarted to kind of build up
because he couldn't graduatewithout checking that box.
Now when his company officer,who happened to be a Marine
captain, got the word that oneof his mids was in a tough spot,
he stepped up and actuallyoffered to do the jump with the
(33:26):
guy as a show of support.
So the next time he had PE, themid told his company officer and
he met him there at LejeuneHall.
They both climbed up the towerand the captain says to the mid
okay, this is just a walk in apark, we'll jump together at the
count of three.
So he starts to count.
When he gets to three he jumps,mid, doesn't?
The Mid is still standing thereon the platform, marine goes
(33:48):
into the water.
He climbs back out, heads backup the tower slightly annoyed.
All right, he sees the mid,who's still not looking all that
confident.
This time the Captain takes himby the elbow and tells him once
more that they're going to goon his count.
So when he gets to three thecaptain jumps, but the mid pulls
his elbow free at the lastsecond and down goes the Marine
for the second time.
Now he's supremely ticked off.
(34:11):
He comes out of the watersquaring up a storm and in a
blink of an eye he's making hisway back up the tower again,
ready to unload on this mid whoclearly hasn't appreciated his
leadership by example.
Then, at some point before hegot to the top of the tower, the
captain hears a splash and thenwhen he got up on the platform,
he sees that the mid hadfinally jumped.
So I guess the Mid's momentaryfear of heights was nothing
(34:34):
compared to the fear of facingthe wrath of an angry Marine.
That story makes me laugh everytime I think about it.
By the way, I do have one moreNavy swimming and diving.
Note both the Patriot Leaguechampionships and the ECAC
championships will be held inAnnapolis at Lejeune Hall.
So if you've never had a chanceto check out a Navy swim meet,
I highly recommend you get outthere for at least one of those
(34:54):
two.
Trust me, you'll be glad youdid.
As I mentioned before, thePatriot League championships
start on February 21st and theECAC championships begin on the
29th.
All right, now it's time for ourquestion of the day and, like
we always do, let's go ahead andcheck out the responses to the
question from our last episode.
Here was the question CoachBill Roberts has led the Navy
men's swimming and diving teamto 19 Patriot League
(35:16):
championships.
How many East Coast AthleticConference championships have
they won since he became thehead coach?
Is it A7, b11, c13 or D15?
The most popular answer was C13championships.
There were 66% of you who wentwith that choice, and then there
were 26% of you who said 11titles and finally, 9% of you
decided on A7 championships.
(35:37):
So it turns out that thecorrect answer was C.
The Mids have won 13 ECACchampionships under Coach
Roberts.
That includes the last nine ina row.
So congratulations to those ofyou who came up with that answer
.
Now let's take a look at ourquestion for this episode.
In addition to winning multipleleague championships.
Navy women's swimming anddiving coach John Morrison has
also developed a number ofswimmers who have qualified for
(35:59):
the Olympic trials.
How many have gone to thetrials under his direction?
Is it A6, b9, c11 or D12?
You can take some time to thinkabout that one, and if you want
to reply back, you can do so bygoing to the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page.
I will have it posted by theend of the day.
All right, now let's go aheadand roll into our midwatch
(36:21):
segment and see how our twoathletes are doing.
First we've got Zanay BarnettGay, who plays guard for the
Navy women's basketball team.
She continues to impress as theseason goes on.
A couple of weeks ago she wasrecognized as the Patriot
League's player and rookie ofthe week for the second time
this season.
She averaged 19 points and 8.5rebounds per game in the two
(36:41):
wins over Colgate and Lehigh.
The mids record is 5 and 7 andthey are currently 9th out of 10
teams in the Patriot League.
But don't let that fool you,because they are only two games
out of second place.
With six games to go.
The league standings are verybunched up, with only three
games separating first throughninth place.
Barnett Gay leads the team inminutes, played points and
rebounds.
She is also the team leader insteals.
(37:02):
Now, considering how young thisteam is, I've got to say that
I've been really surprised andpleasantly surprised at that at
how much they've improved sincethe beginning of the season.
They started two freshmen andthree sophomores in their last
game versus American Universityand won by a score of 69 to 55.
And, led by Zanay Barnett Gay,they're only going to get better
over the next couple of years.
(37:23):
Now let's check in with AustinBenini, who plays guard for the
men's basketball team.
He is a sophomore andunfortunately, the team has
really hit a rough stretch ofroad lately.
After beating Army at home backon January 20th, they've lost
seven in a row, including thestar game last weekend.
Unfortunately, army won it atthe free throw line after their
player got fouled on the BlackKnight's final shot and he hit
(37:44):
those three free throws to giveArmy the win.
I did see some slight contacton the shooter's non-shooting
elbow as he was coming up, butthe rest were letting a lot
worse go during the game, so Iwas a little surprised they made
that call.
Anyway, it was a tough way tolose after coming from nine
points down with five minutes togo.
The Mids had actually taken aone point lead going into that
last play.
Benini did get 11 points in theMids most recent game to lead
(38:06):
the team in scoring, but theylost by double digits at home to
American.
No one shot the ball all thatwell, so let's hope they can
shake off that shooting slump intime to move up into standings
in the next couple of weeks.
Benini is still the team'sleading score at nearly 16
points per game, and if the Midsdo start hitting more
consistently from the field itcould open up things more on
offense, where he can get to therim more frequently.
That's where Benini is at hisbest.
(38:28):
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankNavy Women's Swimming and Diving
Coach, john Morrison, forjoining me today.
It was great getting a closerlook at one of the Academy's
(38:49):
truly elite teams.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
Group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to
(39:11):
your courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy beat Army.
Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to
welcome and thank all of you forjoining us today on Navy Sports
Central.
I'm your host, and this is theofficial podcast of the Navy
Sports Nation where we take adeeper dive into Navy Sports.
It's already the middle ofFebruary and that means we are
definitely in crunch time whenit comes to the Army Navy Star
Series.
I'll have a complete breakdownfor you in our sports update,
including my take on how theremaining games and matches
(00:35):
might play out, and in our deepdive segment I'll be joined by
Navy women's swimming and divingcoach, john Morrison, who is
busy getting his team ready forthe Patriot League Championships
next week.
All that, plus our question ofthe day and mid-watch segments
are coming your way next, sostick around.
We'll be getting things startedshortly.
Alright, it is great to haveyou with us here on Navy Sports
(01:04):
Central, whether you are aregular listener or new to the
podcast.
Thanks for taking the time.
So today we are going to kickthings off by taking a look at
the Army Navy Star Series.
As you all know, february is theshortest month of the year, but
it's also the month where themids go head to head against the
Black Knights in the mostnumber of sports.
The total number of sports inthe Star Competition is 26, and
(01:26):
7 of them take place in February, so clearly this is a critical
month when it comes todetermining the overall winner.
Whoever wins February has apretty good chance of coming out
on top on the overall series.
Going into the month, army led6-5, with one tie.
In men's soccer, the first 1-13wins this year takes the
competition because of the tie.
Normally it would take 14 wins,and on February 3rd there were
(01:50):
4 stars up for grabs.
So let's take a look at eachsport in the order in which the
teams competed.
First up was the Rifle Team.
They traveled up to West Pointfor this match and, going in,
the Black Knights led theoverall series 47-35.
But the mids had won the lasttwo in a row and four out of the
previous five matches.
They were all pretty close,though, so it was really tough
to predict this one.
One thing that was a virtualcertainty, though, was Navy's
(02:11):
Marleigh Duncan having a strongperformance.
The junior from Wake Forest,north Carolina, was the highest
scorer in each of the mids twoprevious star wins, and this
year was no exception.
She posted a score of 589points out of a possible 600 in
the small bore, and then shefollowed that up with 595 points
in the air rifle, which wasgood for a total of 1184.
Now, as far as the scoring goes, the top four individual scores
in each category count towardsthe overall team total, and that
(02:34):
was the Mids performance in theair rifle that allowed them to
get the separation they needed.
They actually grabbed the topfour spots overall, with
Isabella Baldwin and ClarissaLayland putting up 596 points
each.
Then came Duncan with 595,followed by Deonte Hayes, who
came through with a personalbest of 594 points.
The final score was Navy 5896and Army 5863.
(02:56):
Now, the interesting thing isthat the scores were program
records for both teams in thestar competition.
So it's a real testament to howhard these athletes compete
against each other.
Now that the rifle competitionis completed, the overall star
series was deadlocked at 6-6-1.
At least for the next couplehours anyway.
Right about the time that therifle competition was winding
(03:16):
down, the men's track and fieldteam got things going against
Army at the Wesley A Brown FieldHouse.
Joshua Boamah, who is a seniorfrom San Diego, California, put
up the first five points for themids by winning the weight
throw.
He did that with a schoolrecord of 21.12 meters, which
breaks down to 69 feet 3.5inches, and, by the way, I'll
give you both sets of units too,just in case you like the
(03:38):
English units better.
By the way, Boamah's throwbroke his own record by a tenth
of a meter.
Also, Collin Green placed third, tying his personal best of
20.12 meters, which is about 66feet 1 quarter inch.
Boamah pulled down five morepoints by finishing first in the
shot put, and he did that on asixth and final attempt.
His distance of 18.71 metersbroke a school record that had
(03:59):
stood for over 50 years, and itwas also a new personal best by
half a meter.
Incidentally, that 18.71 meterstranslates to 61 feet 7 and 3
quarter inches.
In the triple jump, jordanPayne and Sebastian Allen
finished 1-2.
Payne posted a jump of 14.59meters, which is 47 feet 10 and
a half inches, and Allen wasright behind him, coming in at
(04:19):
14.42 meters, or 47 feet 3 and 3quarter inches.
Both of those efforts came ontheir final attempt as well, so
they're kind of saving the bestfor last there.
On the track, Brahmir Vick gota terrific jump out of the
blocks in the 60 meter hurdlesand never looked back.
He beat his own school recordby.02 seconds with a time of
7.74.
And just to give you anindicator of Vick's dominance in
(04:40):
this event, he now owns nine ofthe top ten times in Navy track
and field history.
Vick also won the 60 meter dashwith a time of 6.83 seconds,
which is fifth best in programhistory, by the way.
Before I go any further, I wantto give a quick shout out to
Maura Kent for passing along allthese details of the events I'm
covering.
Maura is one of the admins ofthe Navy track and field fans
Facebook group and those of youwho listened to the show may
(05:03):
recall that she was a guest lastsummer when we featured her son
, Nathan, who plays football inaddition to running track.
Now, all that makes for a verynice segue into these next two
events, because the Mids' strongperformance in the sprints
continued, with Nathan pickingup the double in the 200 and 400
meters.
He was a little dinged upduring football season but is in
excellent form now.
Kent's time of 21.
(05:23):
22 in the 200 set a new meetrecord by a tenth of a second,
and he also clocked in at 47.
45 to win the 400 meter dash,and that qualifies as the fifth
best time overall in the program.
The mids also pulled off sweepsin the mile in 3,000 meters,
with Sam Keeney and Murphy Smithpicking up the wins there.
When all the dust had settled,the final score ended up being
Navy 101 Army 78.
(05:44):
It was their fifth straight winover the Black Knights indoors,
and now the mids finally hadthe lead in the star series.
For the first time all year.
It was 7-6-1 in their favor.
Now it was the women's turn totake the track, and right about
the same time the gymnasticsteam was getting ready to square
off against the Black Knightsover at the Halsey Fieldhouse.
Like the men, the womendominated in the sprints.
(06:05):
Sophomore Jia Anderson won boththe 60 meter hurdles and a 60
meter dash with times of 8.36and 7.53 seconds.
Both were new school records,and she also finished second in
the 200 meters and, by the way,that time of 24.18 seconds was
also a school record.
The Mids completed a dominatingperformance in the sprints by
finishing 1-2 in the 400.
Annie Lemelin and TaylorWoodworth put up times of 55.39
(06:28):
and 55.44 to pick up a total of8 points in that event.
Ellie Abraham won the 800meters and the 400 meter relay
team of Susanna Hines, LexiEnsor, Mia- Claire Kezal and
Kayla McGuire turned in anoutstanding performance.
They broke the old meet recordwith a time of 9.
05.
25 to finish in first place byan amazing 13 seconds.
And by the way, just to giveyou a little perspective here,
(06:50):
their winning time converts toroughly an average of 34 seconds
per lap.
That means that the 13 secondmargin of victory translates to
about 76 meters, give or take ahalf a meter or so.
That means when Kayla McGuirecrossed the finish line, the
Army runner still had half thefinal turn plus the entire
straightaway in front of her.
So yeah, I'd say that was apretty impressive win.
The women also won three fieldevents.
(07:11):
Alayna Schroeder finished firstin the pole vault, clearing a
height of 14.01 meters, and thattranslates to 13 feet one and
three quarter inches.
Sami Bollinger took the topspot in the triple jump with a
leap of 12.01 meters, or 39 feetfive inches, and Hannah
Lowenstein took the long jumpwith a winning height of 1.71
meters, which comes out to fivefeet seven and a quarter inches.
(07:33):
The final score was Navy 99,army 82.
And it was also the fifthconsecutive star the women had
picked up, which increased theirlead in the star series to 8, 6
and 1 overall.
Shortly after that resultposted, the gymnastics team made
it 4 for 4 on the day bybeating Army for the sixth
straight year.
But things did not look goodgoing into that meet.
Navy's All-American IsaiahDrake was hurt in practice the
(07:55):
day before, so the Mids werealready down their best
all-around gymnast and the meethadn't even started yet.
It didn't seem to bother themone bit though, because the team
won five out of six rotationsComing out on top in the floor
exercise, palmer Horse, rings,vault and High Bar.
The individual winners wereSian Burr de Gunta and the floor
exercise.
He is having a terrific year,by the way.
(08:15):
Also, riley Rose took first inthe rings, as did Caleb Hickey
in the High Bar.
You know there's a time when thegymnastics star meet was
practically an automatic win forthe Black Knights.
Early on in the rivalry, armywon 19 out of 20 between 1949
and 1969,.
But things started to change in1983 when Navy Athletic
Director Bo Coppedge hired PeterKorman.
(08:35):
Korman was a bronze medalist inthe 1976 Montreal Olympics.
He led the program for sixyears and was a perfect 6-0
against the Black Knights.
Over the last 40 years Navyholds a pretty impressive 28-12
advantage.
Now Army does still lead in theseries.
The score there is 45-41 withtwo ties.
But the fact that the deficitis only four now pretty much
(08:57):
tells you the kind of hole theMids were in when Korman was
hired in 1983.
Current coach Kip Simons has a7-1 record in the star meet.
So Navy could pull even beforetoo much time goes by if they
continue to perform at this highlevel.
The gymnastics win increased theMids' lead to 9-6-1, but Army
was not going to go down quietly.
They ended up winning both thestars in Men's and Women's
(09:18):
Basketball, and last night inwrestling the Mids got edged out
18-17.
And I got to tell you I thoughtthey got robbed in that one,
because in the very last contest, at 149 pounds, navy's Kaeman
Smith looked like he had pulledoff a great upset by pinning his
guy, but the rest just didn'tsee it that way.
A pin would have given the Midsenough points to put him over
the top, but unfortunately thatdidn't happen and they came up
(09:40):
short.
So now this year's competitionis tied up at 9-9-1, with seven
sports to go, and you can counton the rest of the Star Series
being a dogfight from here onout.
Now, I'm not into predictiongame here, because I'm way too
superstitious.
Besides, we all know thatrecords don't matter when it
comes to Army-Navy.
So what I am going to do ispoint out the sports where I
think the Mids have the bestchance of coming away with a win
(10:01):
, and remember they need a totalof 13 to clinch the series.
I'd have to say that the bestopportunities for the Mids to
pick up a couple of wins in thespring are in Men's and Women's
Outdoor Track.
Coach Jamie Cook always seemsto have both teams ready to go,
and I don't expect this year tobe any different.
Both teams are also a littlestronger outdoors because of
their depth.
After Track and Field, I'm kindof leaning towards Men's Tennis
(10:22):
.
Navy has won the last twoPatriot League championships
there, and they've also won thelast couple of star matches
against Army.
Of course, I get that you canthrow the record books away in
these situations, but Army iscoming to Annapolis this year
and the Mids are pretty tough tobeat on their home court.
Now we're up to Men's andWomen's Lacrosse and, quite
frankly, both of those are acoin flip.
Let's go ahead and start withthe men first.
On paper, army probably has anadvantage.
(10:44):
They won the Patriot Leaguelast year, but the same could
have been said in 2021 and 2022.
They had a strong squad in eachof those two years and the Mids
pulled off the upset both times.
Also, navy's got something toprove.
Last season, they were kind ofwrecked by injuries, so if they
can stay healthy this group ofseniors led by Xavier Arline and
Jackson Bonnets they have got agreat opportunity to go out
(11:05):
strong, and one way to do thatis by picking up a big win in
their last star game.
On the women's side, army isalso returning a pretty good
team.
Last year, the Mids lost aheartbreaker to them in double
overtime in the Patriot Leaguesemifinals, and the Black
Knights have won the last twostar games, although Navy did
beat them in the 2022 PatriotLeague tournament, so they got a
little bit of payback there.
Anyway, as far as a star gamegoes, the women are due, so that
(11:28):
, and the fact that this is ahome game, is the reason I give
them a decent chance of winningthis one, and I will be there to
watch that game, so hopefully Idon't jinx them Now.
If Navy doesn't pick up a starthere, the women's tennis team
will have their shot at Army.
And here's another situationwhere both teams are pretty even
.
After the Mids won the star,the last couple of years, army
did come back to beat them inthe Patriot League tournament.
(11:49):
So again, it's another cointoss here.
One sport where it might be alittle bit of an uphill battle
for the Mids is in baseball.
I'm not saying it's a done deal, but if they were to come away
with the star against Army, Ithink it would be a nice bonus.
Chuck Restano is the new Navycoach and the Mids do return
five starters, but they alsolost their top two hitters and
their number one pitcher tograduation.
The star in baseball is decidedby playing a three game series.
(12:13):
Last year the Mids were unableto get into the win column in
any of those games and they wereoutscored 24 to 6.
So it'd be pretty nice to erasethat memory by pulling out a
win.
Okay, that takes care of ourfairly comprehensive sports
update, but please don't goanywhere, because our deep dive
segment is next, where we'll getan up close and personal look
at the Navy women's swimming anddiving team.
(12:34):
Stay with us.
You know, in our last episode Ihad a great conversation with
Navy men's swimming and divingcoach, bill Roberts.
(12:56):
I hope you all had a chance tocheck that out, because we've
got a good look into not onlyone of the elite programs in all
of Navy athletics, but also theentire East region, and you can
say the same about the women'sprogram as well.
They've won a total of 21Patriot League championships,
including the last 10 in a row,so it's only fitting that we
follow up our visit with CoachRoberts by welcoming the women's
coach.
He is in his 20th year leadingthe program and has compiled an
(13:19):
impressive dual meet record of168 and 44.
He's also been named thePatriot League coach of the year
seven times, so I am very happyto have Navy women's swimming
and diving coach John Morrisonjoin us today.
Okay so, coach Morrison, it'sreally great to have you here
with us on Navy Sports Central.
Thanks for taking the time.
Coach Morrison (13:36):
Well, thank you for having me.
It's awesome to be in our sportof swimming.
We don't get to highlight ittoo often.
It's great of you to recognizeus.
Karl (13:45):
Okay, well, no problem at all.
Believe me, I can tell you thatwhen it comes to the sports I
used to watch in the yard, I didsee my share of swim meets and
they were really a lot of fun towatch, awesome, awesome.
So one of the things I notedand I kind of mentioned this
when I was talking with CoachRoberts a couple of weeks ago
the Navy swimming and divingprogram, for both the men and
(14:06):
the women, has been a model ofconsistency for decades and
you've been a big part of thatbecause of the stability you
bring, having been there for 20years and so forth.
So what I want to know is, inthe time that you've been there
and you have just differentathletes that come through the
academy year after year,certainly you want to stay true
(14:27):
to a certain model that you haveto keep that level of
performance up, but are thereany things that you've had to
adapt to over the years to keepthings fresh?
You know, recognizing thatathletes change over time.
Coach Morrison (14:38):
Yeah, I think our training has adapted quite a
bit over time.
Just the scientific approach torest and feeling the body and
those things have changed sodrastically that it's a lot
different than before.
But on an individual, I thinkevery class comes in with their
own personality.
I think they all come in fromdifferent areas of the country,
(15:01):
so our team has a very good wayof pulling each other together
to support one common cause,just like the United States
Naval Academy or just kind of asmaller microcosm of that.
Karl (15:12):
Okay, all right, cool.
Now.
Another question I have kind ofalong those lines is when you
look at how your team isperforming over the course of a
season, or even the course of acouple of seasons, are there any
specific things that you'd lookfor or certain things that you
identify as potential red flagsthat indicate, okay, maybe we're
getting a little bit into a ruthere.
(15:32):
How can you guard against thatand how do you steer clear of
those things?
Coach Morrison (15:35):
Great question.
I think we have to read theathletes on a daily basis.
The interesting part of myposition because I teach and
coach at the same time.
So I teach swimming and then Icoach in the afternoon and
obviously through the varsityprogram, so I get to the
midshipman as a whole, kind offollow the same type of bio
(16:00):
rhythm as I go through and anygiven year, maybe dictated by
leadership and maybe just theattitude in the hall, and to be
able to see that in theclassroom and then also kind of
witness it and pay attention tosome of the maybe a negative
vibe coming from the classroom.
They're a little bit run downand beat up in the classroom
(16:23):
just coming over once a week.
We can certainly see thathappening to our mids as well.
So taking a lot of cues from ourgeneral mid-population,
midshipman population and thenalso moving that into our
program, all the things that welook at for just body language,
(16:43):
attitude coming over to practice.
Fortunately we have a very goodvalue system and we've been
fortunate to have people grow upin the program and respect
those that came before them.
So a lot of legacy that holdsto some of the true values that
we sustain in our program.
One of them is maintaining apositive atmosphere and ask
(17:08):
questions, communicate so opencommunication between the
coaches and the athletes to notonly see how they're feeling on
that day, but also what can wedo as coaching staff, what can
we do to help support you to getbetter as an individual or as a
team?
And it's one of the greatleadership points of our program
here at the academy, across theyard, is having input and
(17:33):
having the student athletesactually be a part of the
solution.
So, given that empowering inthat position and allowing them
to help make adjustments reallykind of hopefully yields hitting
that big slump at any givenseason and hopefully we can get
(17:53):
ahead of the curve, that'scoming Right, right, okay.
Karl (17:58):
So let's get into the game day, or the day of the meet
atmosphere.
One of the things I've alwaysbeen curious about is you and
your staff, and, of course, theteam, put together a plan, a
strategy that you're looking toexecute during the day, and once
the day gets going, maybethings don't track according to
the original plan.
I mean, I'm sure that happensall the time.
(18:18):
So my question is, first of all, can you give us an idea of
what you and your coaches aredoing after the meet has gotten
underway?
And then, secondly, what mighta contingency plan look like if
you had a race or two that justdidn't go as you had anticipated
?
Coach Morrison (18:35):
Yeah, another good question.
This is a.
So a lot of a lot of coach prepgoes into meet preparation in
terms of where we can put people, what their abilities are, of
the other teams.
So there's a lot of researchfrom the other other teams.
The nice thing about our sportis all time related, so you can
(18:55):
see where you're going to.
For the most part, you can seewhere things are going to line
up.
You don't know who's going tobe missing from your opponent,
but you know who you might bemissing due to injury or illness
.
So you have a good idea of howto set a lineup and then allow
the team to know what thatlineup looks like.
And also, if there areadjustments from event to event
(19:16):
we don't hit an event quite theway we'd like we can make those
switches.
We've already had it kind ofgame planned out as to okay,
this is what we're going to doto switch out this person later
in the event in the meat listand hopefully I gain a little
bit more leverage on the on theoverall meat outcome.
Karl (19:34):
Okay, all right, very interesting.
Yeah, I was.
I didn't actually see you whenI was watching the Army Navy
meet, but I was listening toRowdy Gaines and he said that
after that, the very first relay, when you guys touch the wall
first, he was like, oh, coachMorrison is like really fired up
, you know.
So I imagine a good amount ofthat, that time you spend, in
addition to just looking forthose times when you have to
(19:55):
make some adjustments, is just,you know, supporting the
athletes out there as they arecompeting.
Coach Morrison (19:59):
Absolutely.
I mean, it's a you know to tokeep their confidence up and
motivate them, to help them comeup with the best race or best
possible case scenario.
The Army Navy meet is a littledifferent than most.
The emotions are high and it'snot we almost, as coaches at
that point, have to control theemotions or so, then then allow
(20:21):
them just to, just to feed offthem.
So I was more emotional, Ithink, than most of them are at
times, but I think that's a goodthing, because they're
controlling them.
I'm not, but I know I wasexcited that that that first
relay is certainly one in whichyou can really judge a lot from
that first relay because it's amentally relay.
(20:42):
So you see your top swimmer ineach discipline the backstroke,
the breaststroke, the butterflyand freestyle and if you're
competitive or you're winningthat first event in the mentally
relay you you kind of can seethe the cards a little bit later
in the session as those eventscome up as an individual events.
Those, those folks hopefullywill shine.
Karl (21:03):
Okay.
So, speaking to the Army Navymeet in particular, obviously,
anytime you compete in a duelthere's a certain level of
intensity, but you and I bothknow that when it comes to Army,
that's just a whole differentstratosphere.
So the thing that I find isinteresting and I kind of had a
little conversation with CoachRoberts about this as well is
you got freshmen out there whosix months previous they were
(21:26):
just high school seniors, youknow having a good old time, and
six months later they'recompeting against Army and
seemingly they're unfazed.
And and I'm pointing tosomebody like Ella Habyan who
let off your 200 medley relayand had a really strong leg in
the backstroke she won the 100backstroke and looks like she
won the 200 backstroke as well.
So when it comes to what you'veseen over the years with your
(21:48):
freshman performing, have youseen any differences in terms of
how they handle this kind ofpressure and, if so, what do you
attribute that to?
Coach Morrison (21:57):
Good question, I think.
I think some are.
I think everybody's a littlebit different Because we do have
some, some freshman that mightbe a little green at the
national level or that.
That feeling of you know it'sall my shoulders.
But one of the things that thatour team does are pretty good
job at is Helping each otherfind their own success.
(22:19):
So they, they help each other.
You encourage, motivate andknow that if there is a down
swim or not so good swim,they're gonna be.
They had their back regardless.
So it's a, it's kind of a nicesisterhood in that regard in
terms of setting them up.
But I think the the overall, Ithink I do think the young folks
(22:40):
today I say young, much youngerthan I, but the differences I
tend to be I think they areaware of their surroundings a
little bit more, and it might beSocial media, might be just the
way they're teaching in highschool or the way their club
teams and their high schoolteams are happening, so they're
a little bit more aware.
(23:01):
That can be a distraction orVery good.
And in terms of Ella's case, sheis a talented athlete and she
was able to do some incrediblethings.
She broke a league record andher first Army Navy meet.
I'm fastest than anybody hasever gone in our league in the
last 25 years, so that's prettyincredible when you had those,
(23:24):
those level athletes that justknow, on game day, we, they are
just excited to go out performin the environment at the At the
Army Navy meet, like you said,on the front end that's.
That's upper echelon, as rowdygains called it.
It's one of his favorite meetsto come to.
Just because of the excitementand just the sheer emotion of
that meet on both sides of thepool deck from the Army side and
(23:47):
and Navy side is Incredible.
I mean, I've, I've competed inyou know ACC matchups UNC UVA or
UNC Duke and Tennessee when Iwas coaching there.
We go Tennessee against Georgiaor Florida and it was a huge,
huge match.
But there is no level of justunderstanding what the other,
(24:10):
the other opponents, are goingthrough and that that you just
want.
You want to beat your, your,your counterpart on that day,
knowing that for the rest ofyour life you're gonna be
standing shoulder to shoulder.
Karl (24:22):
Right, right, okay.
So this past Army Navy meet acouple of months back Was the
closest that it's been with thewomen since, since you've been
there, and I was wondering ifyou could Identify the one race
that kind of you know.
Once it was over with, you saidokay, we've got a little bit of
(24:42):
breathing room here.
I think we have the separation.
We need to close things outFirst.
About which race was that andcan you give us a little bit of
a recap?
Coach Morrison (24:50):
Yeah.
So I think the mentally relaywas huge.
I always feel.
I think every coach feels alittle bit more confident coming
off that relay like okay, we'rein a good place as a team,
being able to compete, knowingthat they had had some good
distance swimmer Molly Weber upfront in the thousand and they
have a two very good 200freestylers.
(25:14):
I look to those next twostrokes Ella coming back in the
hundred backstroke they'reperforming very well with Megan
Murphy, who's who's been verysolid for us, but she, she
stepped up to a different levelon that day and then our brush
strokeers and then our twoflyers came through as well.
So I think that those threeevents right after the 200
freestyle, as soon as we gotthrough them, that was okay.
(25:36):
We, we are solid, we're gonnakeep this me close.
And what are gonna be our,what's gonna be our?
The separator and our sprinterstepped up that day.
Huge.
Our two seniors, maya Novak andAnna Freeman, and then Maya
Novak and and Hannah Pratt andthe hundred freestyle.
They kind of really Solidify.
(25:58):
I knew at that point when theycame back and they both won
personal best times and thehundred freestyle, I knew they
that we had a good thing going,and then that just followed up
with Ellison and Gabby Baldwin'sone to finish in the two back.
So At that point I I wasn'tbreathing a sigh of relief, but
I knew we're in a good spot tobe able to move through.
(26:19):
So it was about halfway throughthe meat that Met that right,
right, okay, good, good.
Karl (26:25):
So in the post meet interview you spoke to the
energy in Lejeune Hall andbefore I continue I want to
throw out something I had heardyears ago when the I was
watching the special on when theUS hockey team beat the
Russians at the Lake PlacidOlympics and they're
interviewing Al Michaels and hewas describing what it felt like
(26:46):
when they got to go ahead goalwith about ten minutes ago in
the game and he said the placewas just Unbelievable.
He said that's one of thosetimes when sound had a feel to
it.
You know.
So, with that in the back ofyour mind, can you describe what
it's like on the day of theArmy Navy meet, just you know,
after an exciting race or like,for instance, after that medley
(27:09):
relay, what, what is that like?
Coach Morrison (27:14):
Yeah, gosh, it's , it's.
It's surreal.
You, you train for, you know, ayear you're recruiting for two,
three years to get to thatpoint of Competition and and you
have environment.
That that is.
Lejeune Hall is packed to therim.
We got thousand seats, allseats are full and people are
(27:36):
standing in the Vestibules andalong the windows and on deck
and it is electric when you,when you feel it and even mr
Gladjak has been to many asporting event, so it's one of
the most exciting Events they goto and and an experience is
just that whole hype for thatfirst initial send-off of the
(27:59):
relay it you get.
I'm right now I'm getting hairstand up on the back of my neck.
It's just so, so exciting the,the emotion of your team and and
the, the folks be on the otherside of the pool and and just
everything.
Everything's such a high levelof focus and concentration and
(28:19):
excitement that it is electric.
It certainly is electric and meand you just feel that energy
Throughout.
And you know, fortunately ourteam came away with the win this
year.
You said it was the closest,closest one in years and it was.
It was a tight one.
Is we're gonna still have tofight, fight, fight for some
more.
So right, it's always, alwaysfun, it's always fun, but that
(28:42):
they the energy in that thefacility.
And even talking to Rowdy,after no who's Been at every
Olympics for the last, you knowwhatever 15 Olympics me.
We even says that.
You even says it's one of themost electric environments he's
ever been in, because there's somuch pride on the line.
(29:04):
Right for you, for your wholeteam, right, right.
Karl (29:08):
Okay, this is going to be the last question I'm going to
basically ask you to think about.
You have the Patriot Leaguechampionships coming up in less
than a week.
Basically, you start onWednesday.
What are your two toppriorities when it comes to
making sure that your team is asready as they can be to defend
that title?
Coach Morrison (29:24):
I think, set in a tone of confidence that we put
in the work for the years, isour real big top priority.
Just a couple of workouts thatwe go through.
It's kind of race prep, themental prep for those races and
allowing the mind to kind ofjust allow the body I shouldn't
(29:46):
say allow the mind, allow thebody do what it's been trained
to do.
We do a lot of race prep in thelast few days, just kind of
drawing that confidence goinginto the meat From a coaching
staff point of view.
Well, that day to day, thosetwo and a half hour practices,
we're working on that.
But then you know, we just cameout of meeting with my
(30:10):
assistant going through our dayto day every 15 minutes what
we're going to be doing to makesure that we have them fed on
time back at the hotel on time,sleeping on the right time,
given everything that we cancontrol, trying to take all
those variables that we cancontrol and make them the
absolute best for them.
So it's giving them theconfidence, controlling what we
(30:33):
can control and just having alot of fun going down the
stretch, a lot of smiles when westart to rest.
Karl (30:39):
Yeah, yeah.
And I'll say one more thingwhen you're group, you talk
about creating a positiveenvironment.
I mean, those athletes looklike they're having all kinds of
fun, you know when they'recompeting, so that's really
really cool to see.
And I will tell you this it'stimes like when I was watching
the meat on ESPN Plus.
It's times like this where Iwish I didn't live in Arizona.
(31:00):
I wish I was, you know, withina stone's throw of an apple so I
could make there for thosemeats.
But thank goodness that we havethe streaming available so I
can at least be there in spirit.
Coach Morrison (31:11):
Well, we appreciate your support.
Karl (31:13):
There's no doubt about it Right, right, okay, coach, I'm
going to go ahead and closethings out from here.
Listen, thank you so much fortaking the time to join me today
.
I know how busy you are,considering what time of the
year it is, so I reallyappreciate it, and best of luck
as you guys go out there todefend your title next week.
Coach Morrison (31:28):
Well, thanks so much for having me and
supporting our programs, andcome back to LeJune Hall soon.
The 10 meters still open.
Karl (31:37):
Yeah, all right.
Thanks so much, coach.
Bye-bye.
Okay, we're going to go aheadand take a short break now, but
before we do that, I did want togive you all a couple of ways
to stay up to date on NavySports.
The first is to join the NavySports Nation group Facebook
page.
I've got a link to that in theshow notes.
Just click on it, answer acouple of questions and you'll
be good to go.
The second way takes even lesstime.
(31:59):
Just hit the follow button onwhichever platform you're
listening to this podcast rightnow.
It can be Apple Podcasts,spotify, iheart Radio, it
doesn't matter.
Once you do that, every episodewill be downloaded to your
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you're ready.
So please consider becoming amember of our group and you can
actually tap that follow buttonright now to show your support
for the podcast.
I'm looking forward to havingyou join us.
(32:20):
We'll be right back.
Welcome back to Navy SportsCentral, Karl Darden here with
you, and I'm still lapping alittle like Coach Morrison's
(32:42):
reference to the 10 meterplatform at the end of our deep
dive segment.
For those of you who may not beas familiar with the
requirements at Navy, every midhas to take a semester of
swimming each year and sometimeduring the final year all
seniors have to jump off the 10meter tower.
So when Coach Morrison madethat reference, it reminded me
of a story I'd heard just a fewyears after I graduated.
I'm not sure what year ithappened, but the guy who told
(33:05):
me the story said it involvedsomeone from his company.
This guy was down to his lastcouple of weeks of the semester
and he still hadn't done thetower jump.
So of course the anxietystarted to kind of build up
because he couldn't graduatewithout checking that box.
Now when his company officer,who happened to be a Marine
captain, got the word that oneof his mids was in a tough spot,
he stepped up and actuallyoffered to do the jump with the
(33:26):
guy as a show of support.
So the next time he had PE, themid told his company officer and
he met him there at LejeuneHall.
They both climbed up the towerand the captain says to the mid
okay, this is just a walk in apark, we'll jump together at the
count of three.
So he starts to count.
When he gets to three he jumps,mid, doesn't?
The Mid is still standing thereon the platform, marine goes
(33:48):
into the water.
He climbs back out, heads backup the tower slightly annoyed.
All right, he sees the mid,who's still not looking all that
confident.
This time the Captain takes himby the elbow and tells him once
more that they're going to goon his count.
So when he gets to three thecaptain jumps, but the mid pulls
his elbow free at the lastsecond and down goes the Marine
for the second time.
Now he's supremely ticked off.
(34:11):
He comes out of the watersquaring up a storm and in a
blink of an eye he's making hisway back up the tower again,
ready to unload on this mid whoclearly hasn't appreciated his
leadership by example.
Then, at some point before hegot to the top of the tower, the
captain hears a splash and thenwhen he got up on the platform,
he sees that the mid hadfinally jumped.
So I guess the Mid's momentaryfear of heights was nothing
(34:34):
compared to the fear of facingthe wrath of an angry Marine.
That story makes me laugh everytime I think about it.
By the way, I do have one moreNavy swimming and diving.
Note both the Patriot Leaguechampionships and the ECAC
championships will be held inAnnapolis at Lejeune Hall.
So if you've never had a chanceto check out a Navy swim meet,
I highly recommend you get outthere for at least one of those
(34:54):
two.
Trust me, you'll be glad youdid.
As I mentioned before, thePatriot League championships
start on February 21st and theECAC championships begin on the
29th.
All right, now it's time for ourquestion of the day and, like
we always do, let's go ahead andcheck out the responses to the
question from our last episode.
Here was the question CoachBill Roberts has led the Navy
men's swimming and diving teamto 19 Patriot League
(35:16):
championships.
How many East Coast AthleticConference championships have
they won since he became thehead coach?
Is it A7, b11, c13 or D15?
The most popular answer was C13championships.
There were 66% of you who wentwith that choice, and then there
were 26% of you who said 11titles and finally, 9% of you
decided on A7 championships.
(35:37):
So it turns out that thecorrect answer was C.
The Mids have won 13 ECACchampionships under Coach
Roberts.
That includes the last nine ina row.
So congratulations to those ofyou who came up with that answer
.
Now let's take a look at ourquestion for this episode.
In addition to winning multipleleague championships.
Navy women's swimming anddiving coach John Morrison has
also developed a number ofswimmers who have qualified for
(35:59):
the Olympic trials.
How many have gone to thetrials under his direction?
Is it A6, b9, c11 or D12?
You can take some time to thinkabout that one, and if you want
to reply back, you can do so bygoing to the Navy Sports Nation
group Facebook page.
I will have it posted by theend of the day.
All right, now let's go aheadand roll into our midwatch
(36:21):
segment and see how our twoathletes are doing.
First we've got Zanay BarnettGay, who plays guard for the
Navy women's basketball team.
She continues to impress as theseason goes on.
A couple of weeks ago she wasrecognized as the Patriot
League's player and rookie ofthe week for the second time
this season.
She averaged 19 points and 8.5rebounds per game in the two
(36:41):
wins over Colgate and Lehigh.
The mids record is 5 and 7 andthey are currently 9th out of 10
teams in the Patriot League.
But don't let that fool you,because they are only two games
out of second place.
With six games to go.
The league standings are verybunched up, with only three
games separating first throughninth place.
Barnett Gay leads the team inminutes, played points and
rebounds.
She is also the team leader insteals.
(37:02):
Now, considering how young thisteam is, I've got to say that
I've been really surprised andpleasantly surprised at that at
how much they've improved sincethe beginning of the season.
They started two freshmen andthree sophomores in their last
game versus American Universityand won by a score of 69 to 55.
And, led by Zanay Barnett Gay,they're only going to get better
over the next couple of years.
(37:23):
Now let's check in with AustinBenini, who plays guard for the
men's basketball team.
He is a sophomore andunfortunately, the team has
really hit a rough stretch ofroad lately.
After beating Army at home backon January 20th, they've lost
seven in a row, including thestar game last weekend.
Unfortunately, army won it atthe free throw line after their
player got fouled on the BlackKnight's final shot and he hit
(37:44):
those three free throws to giveArmy the win.
I did see some slight contacton the shooter's non-shooting
elbow as he was coming up, butthe rest were letting a lot
worse go during the game, so Iwas a little surprised they made
that call.
Anyway, it was a tough way tolose after coming from nine
points down with five minutes togo.
The Mids had actually taken aone point lead going into that
last play.
Benini did get 11 points in theMids most recent game to lead
(38:06):
the team in scoring, but theylost by double digits at home to
American.
No one shot the ball all thatwell, so let's hope they can
shake off that shooting slump intime to move up into standings
in the next couple of weeks.
Benini is still the team'sleading score at nearly 16
points per game, and if the Midsdo start hitting more
consistently from the field itcould open up things more on
offense, where he can get to therim more frequently.
That's where Benini is at hisbest.
(38:28):
That's going to do it for thisedition of Navy Sports Central.
Thank you all so much forjoining us Now.
If you like what you've heard,please be sure to hit that
follow button wherever you getyour podcasts and remember to
get the word to all the otherNavy fans out there.
Once again, I'd like to thankNavy Women's Swimming and Diving
Coach, john Morrison, forjoining me today.
It was great getting a closerlook at one of the Academy's
(38:49):
truly elite teams.
Our question of the daycontinues to be a show favorite.
You can get in on that byjoining the Navy Sports Nation
Group Facebook page and givingyour answer to this week's
question.
I will pin it to the top so youdon't miss it.
And just a quick reminder theviews expressed on Navy Sports
Central are my own and do notreflect those of the US Naval
Academy or Navy Athletics.
By the way, the music used inNavy Sports Central comes to
(39:11):
your courtesy of Audio Jungle.
This is a great site forpurchasing the rights to use the
music from thousands of artistsaround the world, and those
featured in the podcast will becredited in our show notes.
Talk to you soon, everybody.
Until next time.
This is Karl Darden.
Go Navy beat Army.
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