It was not supposed to be so close. Navy should have beaten Columbia effortlessly.

With the deeper team and the home pool advantage-Navy?s pool is 25 meters long as opposed to the 25-yard variety in Dodge-Navy was a heavy favorite coming in. But the trip and the longer pool didn?t seem to bother men?s swimming and diving at all.

Instead it came down to the very end as Navy defeated and overmatched Lion squad 125-116 in Annapolis on Saturday. As with Brown the weekend before, it was another close meet.

?It?s the first time that we came close to winning there in a very long time,? junior Matt Schultz said.

As usual, the quartet of senior Russel Perkins, senior co-captain Gered Doherty, Schultz, and first-year Arpad Sebe took the 400-relay from Navy with 3:48.08.

Doherty grabbed a couple of other events as well-the 50-meter freestyle in 22.88 and the 100-meter free in 51.61.

?Some of us had great swims and really surprised Navy, a team that was supposed to win the meet comfortably,? Sebe said.

Sebe went on to win the 200 individual medley in 2:06.05 and then the 200 breaststroke in only 2:23.03.

?Just like at Brown, we probably weren?t expected to put up such a good fight, but we did,? first-year Daniel Kim said.

Sophomore Peter Armstrong contributed to the cause, out-swimming Navy at the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:07.07.

The divers did their fair share of the work too, with junior Mark Fichera once again pulling in first place in both the one-meter and three-meter events. Senior co-captain Daniel Brown nabbed second in the one-meter and third in the three-meter. First-year Josh Juffe placed last in both events.

?The first part of the meet didn?t go so well, but starting with the one-meter diving, we began our comeback,? Kim said.

A comeback that led to a tie with one relay left to swim.

?I think we were all surprised when it was actually tied going into the last relay,? Doherty said. ?But they had saved up their big guns and had their way with us.?

The Lions? big gun Doherty didn?t swim in the final relay; he had been in the maximum number of events for the meet.

The swimmers didn?t win the final relay and lost the meet. But Navy had a fleet of swimmers that had been rested and shaved and were hardly expecting any competition on Saturday. So the close score is probably enough to make Navy and all the other teams a little worried about Easterns starting Mar. 2.

Columbia might be 4-8, but they certainly seem ready to challenge the aquatic skills of the other members of the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League.

?Now, the focus is on Easterns because that is where it counts,? Doherty said. ?We?ll be returning the favor.?