Navy Sports Central
What if I told you about a group of elite college athletes who compete in 36 different sports at one of the toughest institutions in the nation. For them, it’s not about name, image, and likeness or any other kind of major endorsement deal. Because at the end of the day, their ultimate goal is to serve their country. These young men and women represent the best our country has to offer. They compete at a high level on both the national and world stage, and their stories have mostly gone untold. I’m here to change all of that.
With Navy Sports Central, you'll get the latest news on the athletes, and their teams, gain some unique insights in our Deep Dive segment and hear from some great guests along the way.
So please join me, Karl Darden, and check out Navy Sports Central wherever you get your podcasts to learn more about these incredible athletes and our nation’s future leaders.
Navy Sports Central
Start the Countdown: A Look At Navy Athletics' Top 10 Most Memorable Moments of the Season
First, we'll get you caught up on how things are looking with the Navy Football team with the season just around the corner. You'll get an update on the defense, and the new Hybrid Winged T offense. We'll check out how things look at the quarterback position.
From there, we'll get right into our Top 10 Countdown highlighting some of the best performances of the year by Navy athletes. Don't miss out on this epic reflection of Navy's stellar season, and be sure to share your favorite Navy sports moments with us by texting the show!
Related Links:
- Navy Women's Tennis Wins the Patriot League Championships!
- Navy Volleyball Rallies to Beat Army and Win the Star!
Averi Miller finished with a total of 2748 sets for her career. Where does this rank her among all Navy Volleyball players?
A. 1st
B. 2nd
C. 3rd
D.4th
You can answer by sending us a text message using the link at the top of the show notes. I'll also post the question on our group Facebook Page.
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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Hi everybody, my name is Karl Darden and I'd like to welcome and thank all of you for joining us today. On Navy Sports Central. I'm your host, and this is the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation, where we take a deeper dive into Navy sports. To the official podcast of the Navy Sports Nation, where we take a deeper dive into Navy sports. The sports season is now over, so I figured this would be a good time to take a look back at some of the most memorable moments of the year in Navy athletics. You can play along by checking how many matched up with yours and then letting me know by sending a text.
Karl:And we haven't really talked about where the Navy football team stood coming out of spring practices, so I do want to take some time to share a few thoughts on how the mids are looking there. Obviously, there's bound to be some questions, so I'll do what I can to answer them, and then we'll go ahead and wrap things up with our question of the day. Things are pretty quiet in the yard, but there's still a lot to talk about, so please don't go anywhere. Okay, summer is here once again in the desert, which basically means we are looking at triple digit high temperatures for at least the next two and a half, if not three, months. That doesn't seem to be an issue with a lot of people, though, because I just read where 111,000 people just moved to Phoenix last year. Anyway, whether you live here or not, or whether you are a regular or first time listener, thanks for taking the time. So, as I said in the opening, we're going to take a look at the top 10 moments of the 2023-24 Navy sports season. Before we start that countdown, though, I wanted to get you all caught up on how things are looking with the Navy football team after the spring practice is wrapped up. I'm not going to go through every position on the depth chart on this show. We'll save that for a couple of weeks before the season starts. So today, I will give you a thumbnail sketch of what the defense will look like, and I'll do my best to explain what you can expect from Coach Drew Cronick's hybrid wing tee offense. And finally, I also wanted to give you all an idea of how the only two quarterbacks listed on the roster did in the spring, according to the coaches. Of course, there'll be a couple more quarterbacks joining the team with the incoming class of 2028, but we don't know who they are yet, and even if we did, it's not likely that they'll be under center on opening day.
Karl:Okay, first let's begin with the defense, and I think the logical place to start is the transfer portal. Was the defense significantly impacted by anyone who left? Now, most everyone who follows the team knows about Jake Busic's situation. He is at UCLA now after an appeal to use his last year of eligibility at Navy was denied. The only other notable player on the defense who entered the transfer portal was cornerback Elias Larry. Now, he did figure in the mids defense quite a bit during his sophomore year and he did play in seven games last year. I don't know if he was hurt too much or not, but the fact is he didn't have the same kind of numbers his junior years. He did his previous one and I was a little bit surprised that he did enter the portal myself, but he ended up landing at Colorado State. So on balance, I don't think the team was hurt too badly by the portal. I have to admit that it would have been nice to have Jake Busic on that defensive line though. Anyway, the defense under second year coordinator PJ Volker is looking like it's going to be every bit as tough this year. Coach Volker and his position coaches have done a great job developing their players, starting with the defensive line and continuing with the linebackers all the way through to the secondary, so I think you can expect to see the same kind of disruption that resulted in three shutouts last year, which, by the way, was among the best in Division I football.
Karl:Moving over to the offense, I've learned a little bit about Coach Cronic's hybrid ring tee that I can share with you now. Here are a couple of key points that I've picked up. Similar to the triple option, the hybrid ring tee is easy to adapt to a team's personnel. It employs a lot of angle blocking schemes, which does tend to level the playing field, because undersized players can still be effective against a bigger opponent. Lining up on defense. The other thing about the offense is its flexibility. You can run lots of plays out of the same formation. Now, with the triple option, you had basically the same situation, but I think there are even more choices available out of a straightforward wing tee setup.
Karl:The main goal is to create conflicts for the defense by overloading individual defenders with choices and then forcing them to make a decision and then, if the quarterback makes the right read, it should be a good result. This offense makes attacking the flanks a priority. All four backs those being the quarterback fullback and both snipes, which is the new term that we're gonna be using for the slot backs they will all be actively involved on every play and that'll be either carrying the ball, blocking or executing some sort of deceptive fake. There will be opportunities for the quarterback to throw the ball as well, whether he starts from under center or from the pistol, using some sort of run-pass option alignment. Now, a minute ago I mentioned running multiple plays out of the same basic formation. I saw one video on YouTube where the offense ran a jet sweep in either direction to attack the perimeter. So that gives you two plays right there, and if the defense gets really aggressive, the jet sweep counter uses a double handoff and executes a reverse to try and catch the defense over pursuing. That's two more plays. So now we're looking at four. There are also two pass plays and an internal trap that can be run out of the same alignment. That makes a total of seven plays. So you can see you've got a lot of different places you can go there, and that's just out of one formation that I've named. There's a bunch of others. The hybrid ring tee has also been adapted to run out of the shotgun or the pistol formation, and that provides for more opportunities for a lot of run pass option plays, and I'm pretty fired up about that because the Navy offense has good speed on the perimeter. So I'm looking forward to the receivers, the snipes and maybe even the tight ends getting their hands on the ball a little bit more often.
Karl:That brings us to the biggest question, which is who's going to be the quarterback that leads this offense Right now? There are only two choices and that leads this offense right now. There are only two choices, and they're both pretty good ones for different reasons. The first is Blake Horvath. He is a junior from Hilliard, Ohio who checks in at 6'2 and 195 pounds, and he appeared in four games last year. In fact he started one of them before having to leave with a broken thumb and unfortunately that injury sidelined him for the rest of the season. But the one thing I did notice when Horvath was playing was that he was pretty comfortable running the system that the offense used last year. He made some good reads and he's got the speed and quickness to break off some big gains. According to quarterbacks coach Ivan Jasper, the biggest area Horvath needs to improve upon is consistently transferring his play and practice to what he does on game day. So we're not going to have the final verdict on that until the season starts.
Karl:The one area of development where Horvath has taken a big jump forward, based on the coaching staff's comments, is his passing ability. He came from an option offense in high school so he didn't throw the ball all that much, and last year he only attempted 12 passes, completing six of them for 84 yards. One of those completions happened to be a 68-yard touchdown pass to Eli Heidenreich against South Florida, and it was a legit deep throw too. So he does have the arm strength. What has really improved during the offseason is Horvath's accuracy and his consistency making the different throws that will need to be made in this offense. The really good news is that Horvath is back at 100% following his thumb injury, and he showed no ill effects from that because he did a great job in spring practice, which earned him the number one spot going into the fall.
Karl:The other guy competing for the job at quarterback is sophomore Braxton Woodson. He's listed at 6'3", 215 pounds, and is from Altamonte Springs, florida, which is just north of Orlando. Now, the first thing that caught my attention was his weight. Last year he was right around 200 pounds, so he's definitely added some bulk, and that's going to be a factor when he runs the ball, because it's going to make him even tougher to bring down once he gets up a full head of steam. Woodson also saw the field four times in 2023, starting once which I think was against Air Force.
Karl:He entered the SMU game after Xavier Arland had to leave due to an injury and in the second quarter he broke off a 69-yard touchdown run, showing off some pretty impressive straight-line speed. He ended up finishing the year with 242 yards on 53 carries. Woodson also has some pretty good skills when it comes to throwing the ball. Last year, against Charlotte, he had a 69-yard touchdown pass against the Heidenreich and he made that throw look pretty easy. The key thing with him as he continues to develop and learn his offense is his decision making. It's probably fair to say that he's got more experience in Horvath when it comes to making the necessary throws, but Coach Jasper has been working with him on knowing when to pull the ball down and use his legs With the kind of speed he has, there aren't many defenders who are going to be able to chase him down in the open field. So those are the two quarterbacks competing to lead the Navy offense in the fall.
Karl:It's the third system the Mids will be using in the past three years and, by all accounts, the players are pretty excited to run it. There hasn't been a ton of noise coming out of spring practice, though, based on the press conferences that I've listened to, that's probably by design. We can talk all we want about it, but I think the priority is making sure that the players continue to get this system tattooed in their brains so that they are ready to go when the season opener gets here. All right, there is your look at where Navy football stands going into the fall. We're just getting started, though, because coming up next, we'll be counting down our top 10 most memorable moments of the Navy sports season.
Karl:After the sports season comes to a close, it's always fun for me to see if I can come up with a top 10 list that features the most memorable moments for that year. What makes it even more challenging is the number of sports that need to be considered, and as far as where they rank in the top 10, that all comes down to the criteria I came up with, which, I admit, is very subjective. So here we go. First, what was the emotional impact of that moment? In other words, how did the result cause me to react? Or, as I like to say, to what extent did it peg the meter? Second, how significant was the moment? In other words, did it occur during the regular season? Was there a league title on the line? Were the mids going against Army? If that moment occurred in any one of those three scenarios, there's a pretty good chance it was considered. And finally, third, was a new school record set? It's tough enough competing in any sport at the academy, so when a team or individual athlete sets a school record, that needs to be looked at. Okay, so now you know what my thought process was. Let's go ahead and get started.
Karl:But before I get to number 10, I did want to kick things off with an honorable mention, and it goes to the Navy Rowing Program. This event actually occurred after last year's sports season ended and before this year's began, but it definitely deserves a spotlight because three Navy rowers were crowned as world champions. That's right. I said world champions, not national champions. This all happened last July at the Under-23 World Rowing Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Mason Banks and Jackson Fuller were invited to try out for the national team and they were selected to represent the United States in the lightweight pairs event. Meanwhile, Lauren Day was selected as a member of the women's eight crew. Banks and Fuller rode an outstanding championship race. They were less than a second in front of Italy at the 500 meter mark, but by 1,000 meters they'd opened up a three and a half second lead. And that was as close as the Italians got the rest of the way, as Banks and Fuller finished the 2,000 meter course in 6 minutes 36.37 seconds, which was nearly four seconds ahead of the second place Italians.
Karl:Now moving over to the Women's 8 championship race. It was almost an identical result. Lauren Day was in the second seat and she helped keep the team stroke for stroke with Germany in the opening 500. From there, the US Shell found a second gear and they opened up a two-second lead at the halfway point. They ended up winning the race with a time of 6 minutes 9.14 seconds, which was over four seconds better than the German team. So there you go Mason Banks, jackson Fuller and Lauren Day became the latest world champions from the Naval Academy in rowing, and it really does tell you what kind of quality program that coaching staff has put together at Hubbard Hall.
Karl:Now, for those of you who may not know it, rowing is one of the more international collegiate sports around. If you look at the rosters from some of the top programs, the majority of the athletes in a number one boat comes from either Europe or some other country where rowing is huge Let me give you an example or some other country where rowing is huge. Let me give you an example. Earlier this month at the IRA Championships, harvard took home the lightweight title and I took a look at the crew of their number one boat. There were three rowers from the UK, one each from New Zealand, south Africa and Canada and only two were from the United States, and actually three if you count the coxswain. On the women's side, the University of Texas won the D1 Championship. They actually did a little bit better with four rowers and the coxswain coming from the US, but they still had two from the UK and one each from Denmark and the Netherlands, and on the heavyweight side, you see it even more the University of Washington's 1 V8 boat that ended up winning the title had three rowers and the coxswain from the UK, two from Norway and one each from Italy, new Zealand and the United States. Now I put all that out there to say that the athletes who row for the Naval Academy face tough international competition every time they get into a shell during the season. So it is really cool to see the Mids winning championships when they take on these elite athletes on the world stage. All right, it is always great to show some love to the Navy rowing program. So now let's go ahead and jump into our countdown. Coming in at number 10, navy Sprint Football pulls off the three-peat. These guys made the countdown last year after going undefeated and winning their second consecutive college sprint football championship.
Karl:This season proved to be a little bit more challenging. They did win their first two games but then lost to Army 10-3 up at West Point, and the offense, which had scored 72 points in those first couple of contests, just couldn't get anything going. But the Mids did manage to turn things around from there. They outscored their next four opponents by an average of 44-10. And just pretty much like every other year, they went up against Army in the championship game, but this time things were a lot different. The Mids tied the score at 7 when the defense returned a block punt for a touchdown and then quarterback Brandon Atwood connected on a couple of scoring passes to Hunter Gennicks and Kai Sasaki to take a 21-10 lead. That was stretched to 28-10 after a one-yard run by Devyn Martin early in the fourth quarter. The Black Knights did come up with a couple of touchdowns to make the score 28-23, but the Navy offense got the ball back with 7.48 to go in the game and ran out the clock to seal the win and the championship. It's tough enough to win one title, no matter what sport you're talking about. So pulling off a three-peat is pretty amazing, and that's the reason the sprint football team landed at number 10 in our countdown, moving on to number nine.
Karl:We've got the Navy women's triathlon team qualifying for nationals in their first year as a varsity program. Now it was about a year ago that the Navy women's triathlon team was elevated from club to varsity status. Actually, the club team was co-ed, but triathlon is an emerging sport on the women's side, so that was one of the reasons this move was made. I had a chance to interview Coach Billy Edwards, from the class of 2001, before the season started. His team of seven women finished second in their very first event and then they went on to pick up a fifth and sixth place finish in their next two before winning the Waterman Sprint Triathlon just before the regional qualifier. They came in sixth out of 20 teams in that event and that was good enough to get them to nationals, which took place out here in Tempe, arizona. The mids pre-race seating was 12th and they ended up finishing 11th overall out of 31 teams. Haley Harris was the mids top finisher, coming in 36th out of the 211 athletes who competed. I actually had a chance to interview the entire team the day before the Nationals back in November. It was a really good conversation and I tell you what. I'm going to go ahead and include a link to it in the show notes in case you want to check it out. I'm also going to see if I can get Coach Edwards back on the show before the season starts. He was a lot of fun to speak with and I know he's got big plans for the team, given the success he's had in the past. So congratulations to to the women's triathlon team on a terrific first season, which earned them the number nine spot on our list. Up next at number eight, navy Gymnastics wins their sixth straight ECAC championship, sending four team members to nationals.
Karl:This Navy Gymnastics program has quietly become one of the best on the East Coast. Years ago, in the star competition, this was practically an automatic W for Army, but it's a much different story now. The mids are 14 and four over the last 18 years, and their current winning streak stands at 7. At the ECAC Championships, the team came up with some of their best performances and put up a season-high 401.45 points. Isaiah Drake took the all-around title, while his classmate Riley Rose won the gold medal in the rings and the high bar, and then sophomore Matthew Petros picked up the mids' third individual title on the parallel bars. Drake and Petros went on to compete at Nationals and they were joined by sophomores Danilo Vicciana on the high bar and Colby Prince in the floor exercise. Coach Kip Simons has done a fantastic job since he came to Navy 10 years ago. He continues to recruit top gymnasts and he's sent at least one to Nationals in each season. The only exception was 2020, when the championships were canceled due to the COVID pandemic. This program has been so consistent over the years and they get that number eight spot in our countdown because of their strong showing this year. That included that sixth straight ECAC championship. So great job to Coach Simons and the entire Navy gymnastics team. That brings us to number seven.
Karl:Navy defeats North Texas 27-24 for their second win of the year. Now, on its face, there was nothing all that remarkable about this game. The Mids came into it with a 1-3 record, while North Texas was 2-2. But the most noteworthy piece of news heading into this game was that the coaching staff had decided to sit Ty Lavitae and start Blake Horvath against the Mean Green. Obviously that's not what the senior quarterback wanted to hear, but he reacted like a true professional and he did his part to help Horvath prepare for the game.
Karl:The Mids punted on their first two possessions so they didn't get off to a really quick start and they were down 3-0 in the second quarter. Then Alex Tex had broke through for a 39-yard touchdown run, giving them the lead. After a couple more changes of possession, north Texas retook the lead 10-7, with just under three minutes to go in the half. Following the kickoff, horvath went to the sidelines and that's when the coaching staff had found out he had suffered an injury to his thumb and he wasn't coming back. So now in comes Ty Lavitae. After an incomplete pass he picked up 20 yards on a third and eight by exploding through the right side of the line and making a really nice cut to avoid a tackle. And on the very next play he throws an absolutely perfect, high-arching touch pass to the right side of the end zone, hitting Nathan Kent for the touchdown, just inside the sideline. I mean, the only way Lavitae could have delivered the ball any better would have been if he had run over to Kent and placed the ball in his hands himself.
Karl:The Mids now had a 14-10 lead going into the locker room With Lavitae at the controls. The rest of the way the offense tacked on a field goal and another touchdown. After a big 38-yard completion took the ball to the North Texas one-yard line. Anton Hall punched it in from there. One more field goal made the score 27-17, and although North Texas did add one more touchdown, the Mids defense held on down the stretch and they won the game 27-24. Lavati's attitude going into this contest and then his performance when his number was called tells you everything you need to know about him. This guy is a real pro. It was one of those feel-good moments, and the entire coaching staff could not say enough about how well he handled the situation. Though the season ended in disappointing fashion, that game against North Texas was a high point for Lavitae, and it was his professionalism and toughness in leading the Navy football team that got him to number seven in our top 10. Now, at number six, we have what I think is another really cool story, and for that we're going to look at the Navy women's basketball team.
Karl:For them, the 2022-23 season was just plain miserable. Jennifer Coleman, who was arguably one of the best to ever put on a Navy jersey, had graduated. The returning team definitely had some raw talent and they certainly weren't short on effort, but this particular group didn't have the same kind of game experience in what was a very competitive Patriot League, and because of that, the Mids endured one really tough year. They wound up winning just one conference game against 17 losses. In fact, that win was the only one they had all season, but while this young team was taking their lumps, they were also getting a lot of big-time game experience that would start paying off the next season.
Karl:Coach Tim Taylor also brought in an excellent group of recruits for the class of 2027, and two of them had an immediate impact. Both Zanai Barnett-Gay and Kyah Smith quickly stepped in to give the mids a solid backcourt tandem. Barnett-gay led the team in both scoring and rebounding, averaging 18.2 points per game and 6.2 rebounds. Smith was second in scoring with 12.1 points per game, and she was first in assists. The team finished strong, winning seven of their last 10 games to wind up just one game out of second place in the conference. They qualified for the Patriot League tournament and beat Lafayette in the first round before losing a tight one to number two-seeded Colgate 69-64. The Mids actually led that game at halftime, but just couldn't hang on. When you look at it, though, it was still a remarkable turnaround to the season. The team went from a 1-17 record in league play to 9-9 with a tournament win, and they did it with a young team that continues to gain more experience. This year's edition of the Navy women's basketball team won't have any seniors at all, but the sophomores and juniors that they have taking the court are all well-tested, and if Coach Taylor's group of incoming freshmen are even close to the level of talent that Zanai Barnett-Gay and Kyah Smith have, the Mid's should improve on a terrific bounce back season that pushed them to number six in this year's countdown of the 10 most memorable moments in Navy athletics.
Karl:Okay, we're going to go ahead and take a short break now, but before we do that, I did want to give you all a couple of ways to stay up to date on Navy sports. The first is to join the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page. I've got a link to that in the show notes. Just click on it, answer a couple of questions and you'll be good to go. The second way takes even less time. Just hit the follow button on whichever platform you're listening to this podcast right now. It can be Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheartradio, it doesn't matter. Once you do that, every episode will be downloaded to your directory when it's released and you can listen to it whenever you're ready. So please consider becoming a member of our group and you can actually tap that follow button right now to show your support for the podcast. I'm looking forward to having you join us. We'll be right back. We are halfway through our countdown of the top 10 most memorable moments of the Navy sports season. I'm curious to know how my list compares to yours. So after we finish up, send me a text using the link on the page to let me know what you think. Okay, let's go ahead and continue with number five on our countdown.
Karl:Navy men's lacrosse defeats number eight-ranked Johns Hopkins on the road. In overtime. The Navy men's lacrosse team had what can best be described as an uneven year this past spring. At times they gave opposing teams fits, and then there were other times when the consistency just wasn't there, and there was one game in particular when we saw both versions of that team. But, lucky for the mids, they showed the Blue Jays just how well they were capable of playing when it counted the most. As I mentioned, hopkins was ranked 8th in the country and Navy traveled up to Baltimore to play them on March 15th. Two years ago, Max Hewitt, who was then a sophomore, scored two goals in less than a minute at crunch time to give the mids the win. It was their first at Homewood Field since 1969. Now he was back to try and have a similar impact.
Karl:But things got ugly really fast for the Mids. The Blue Jays scored six times in the opening quarter to take a four-goal lead into the second. Everything was going their way, while Navy just couldn't seem to do much of anything right. That's when the entire flow of the game changed. The Mids held Hopkins scoreless in the second quarter, while coming up with three more goals to make the score 6-5. Dane Swanson scored two of them and Henry Tolker got the other one off an assist from Hewitt, so starting the second half. Navy found itself back in the game and now the fight was on. Swanson's third goal, and then another by Tolker, gave the Mids a 9-7 lead going into the fourth quarter. And after that, sixth goal outburst by the Blue Jays to start the game. The Navy defense really put the clamps on them. Put the clamps on them, only allowing one goal in 32 minutes of playing time.
Karl:Hopkins didn't go quietly, though they were not interested in losing to the mids a second straight time at home. Their offense finally got going again and they scored twice in the fourth quarter to square the game at 9. Neither team managed to break the tie in the last two minutes, so it was time for some free lacrosse as the game went into overtime. The Mids won the critical faceoff. To get things started, thanks to freshman Zach Hayashi, they worked the ball around before Xavier Arline took a shot that went slightly wide. It was backed up, though, and seconds later Swanson found Hewitt at the top of the box on the right side. After getting past his defender, the senior from Denver, colorado attacked the cage and cut to his left just outside the top of the crease. He would doze to his left and got off his shot while staying clear of the crease and had found the back of the net just as he hit the ground. After a quick review, the goal was confirmed and the Mids had another win against a top 10 ranked opponent.
Karl:Those last three quarters that they played against the Blue Jays were among the best that the Navy men's lacrosse team had played all year, and the fact that they reached that level while playing such a high-powered Johns Hopkins team got them to number five on our list In the number four spot, just ahead of the men, we've got the women's lacrosse team defeats Army to clinch the Star Series. This was one top ten moment I actually witnessed personally. My wife and I made the trip out to Annapolis in April, and I picked that specific weekend because I'd never seen the women play other than on ESPN Plus or the CBS Sports Network. There was a lot at stake. Also, the Mids had lost the last two star games to Army, so they needed to get that trend going in the other direction. Even more importantly, a win here would clinch the star series for the year. And this was after the Mids fell behind 6-1 in the fall.
Karl:The game was physical right from the very start. After trailing early 3-2, the Navy offense reeled off four straight goals to take a 6-3 lead. The Black Knights got one back before the first quarter ended, but the Mids defense really clamped down in the second, giving up just two scores. Meanwhile, the offense led by Emily Messonese and Tori DiCarlo came up with five goals to take an 11-6 lead. Into the locker room. The one player who really helped the Mids dictate the pace of the game was Alyssa Daly, she's Navy's draw control specialist. The mids won that battle 26-5, and Daly had 17 of them on her own. That was just one short of the record held by Reagan Roloffs. The two teams scored four times each in the third quarter. So the mids held on to their five-goal lead at 15-10, and from there it was all over. But the shouting. Mikayla Williams picked up her third goal goal and Lola Leone closed out the scoring. In the fourth quarter, the Mids came away with an emotional 17-11 win. Not only did it snap that two-game losing streak in the star competition, but it also clinched the ninth consecutive star series for Navy, and that's definitely worth a number four ranking on our list. Okay, now we're up to number three.
Karl:The women's tennis team wins their first Patriot League title. There are a total of 12 women's sports at the Naval Academy, not including the three co-ed programs, which are rifle, offshore sailing and collegiate sailing. Ten of those 12 teams are in the Patriot League and going into the 2023-24 sports season, each of them could list a Patriot League championship among their accomplishments, except for one. The women's tennis team became a varsity program in the 2009-2010 season under coach Keith Puryear, and through his first 15 years he'd compiled an outstanding 51-13 record in conference play and an overall record of 194-43. The only thing missing was a Patriot League championship. The mids had made it to the title match seven times under coach Puryear, but were denied by either Boston University or Army, two of the strongest programs in the league.
Karl:This year, the team was definitely on a mission. Led by Emily Tannenbaum and Kate Lee, they put together a terrific 18-5 record going into their star match against Army. They defeated the Black Knights 4-2, but then lost to Boston University by the same score the following week. Even so, they had a good enough season to earn them the number two seat in the tournament, after taking care of Bucknell. In the quarterfinals the mids had to face Army again, with a trip to the championship on the line. It was a back-and-forth contest that all came down to the number six singles match between Navy's Parvati Shankar and Paige Harriman from Army. They split their first two sets, but then Shankar found herself down 4-1 in the third. She managed to battle back to square the match at four apiece, but two games later she was behind again 5-4, facing match point, and things did not look good. Shanker fought off that match point and then took that game as well as the next two, to close out the match 7-5.
Karl:The mids were on their way to their eighth Patriot League final no-transcript. That meant Sia Chowdhury and Kay Lee had to win their matches, otherwise the team was looking at another runner-up finish. Chowdhury dropped her first set, 6-love, but then she found her rhythm, taking the final two sets 6-3 and 6-2. Now all eyes were on the number four singles match, where Li and her opponent, emily Zhao, were deadlocked at a set apiece and headed to a third set tiebreaker. Zhao took a commanding 5-1 lead before Li won three straight points to close the 5-4. The only problem was that Li was going to be on the receiving end of the next two points and Zhao was serving pretty well. Li lost that first point and now, with the score 6-4, in the tiebreaker she was looking at two championship points against her. If she lost either one, it was all over.
Karl:What happened next was unbelievable. Li took the next point to get back on serve at 6-5, then she won both of her server's points to take a 7-6 lead. Now it was her opponent who was serving to stay in the match. Zhao eventually sent a forehand long on that point and after over two and a half long grueling hours, the match was finally over and it ended in absolutely stunning fashion. And, by the way, navy Athletics has a great highlight video on this title match. I'll put a link to it in the show notes and I'm telling you it's definitely a must-see. There are few things more gratifying than seeing the pure joy that athletes experience when they win their first league championship. The entire team just mobbed Kate Lee after that last point and then to watch the reaction of Coach Puryear and his staff. That was just priceless. So the Navy women's tennis team finally won that elusive first Patriot League championship by beating the two programs that previously had their number on consecutive days, and that's what earned them the number three position in our top 10. All right, here we go with number two.
Karl:Navy Men's Track sends four athletes to the NCAA Championships. Last year I heard an interview with Navy Javelin thrower Braden Presser. This was right after his sixth place finish in the event, which earned him First Team All-America honors. One of the things Presser said was that he was looking forward to getting back to the championships next year and having some of his teammates join him.
Karl:This spring, three more members of the men's track team made the trip with Presser to Nationals, which took place in Eugene, oregon. They were Josh Boma in the shot put and hammer throw, ramir Vick in 110 meter hurdles and Nathan Kent in the 400 meters. Both Kent and Vick made it to the semifinals. In fact, both of them recorded the third fastest times in school history in their two respective races. All four athletes were named to the All-America team. The last time this many men had qualified for nationals was back in 1947. And you know, something tells me this could become a regular occurrence. Kent still has two years left at Navy and he's got all kinds of potential. Had he run his time of 48.85 in that third semifinal heat instead of the first one that he was in, he would have made the final.
Karl:Based on the qualifying criteria, the performances of Braden, presser, josh Boma, ramir Vick and Nathan Kent capped off an amazing year for the men's track team. All four of them were invited to compete in the Olympic trials, and that's where Nathan Kent lowered his school record twice in the 400 meters, while again making it to the semifinals. I am a little bit fuzzy on how that works, though, as it relates to a school record, since the Olympic trials weren't really an NCAA event. It doesn't really matter, though. Presser, boma, vick and Kent made history on the strength of their performances all year long, and their accomplishments as a group made it the second most memorable moment of this Navy sports season. And that brings us to the most memorable moment.
Karl:But let me go ahead and do a quick recap of numbers 10 through 2. First At number 10, navy Sprint Football pulls off the championship. Three-peat Number 9, the Navy Women's Triathlon Team qualifies for nationals in its first years of varsity program. Number 8, navy Gymnastics wins their sixth consecutive ECAC championship, sending four team members to nationals. Number 7, navy defeats North Texas 27-24. Number six Navy women's basketball has a strong bounce-back season. Number five men's lacrosse defeats eighth-ranked Johns Hopkins on the road in overtime. Number four women's lacrosse beats Army to clinch the star series. Number three the women's tennis team wins its first Patriot League title. And at number two, the Navy men's track team sends four athletes to the NCAA championships.
Karl:And finally, we come to the most memorable moment of this year's sports season, and for this one you had to go all the way back to the fall, to November in fact and it took the top spot because it was packed with the kind of drama and emotion that make college sports so much fun to watch. And, of course, it didn't hurt that the opponent happened to be Army in this case either. So I've kept you waiting long enough. At number one in our countdown of the 10 most memorable moments in Navy sports this year, the women's volleyball team comes from behind to beat Army to take its first star since 2018. Now, I don't want to give you the impression that the mids weren't having any success at all against the Black Knights since Coach Paco Labrador took over that same year. The fact is, his teams have beaten Army at least once each season, but most of those wins did not come in a star match. These two teams face each other twice a year and potentially a third time in the playoffs, and every time the Navy won it was in either the non-star match or in the Patriot League tournament In 2023, the mids dropped their first contest against the Black Knights up at West Point three sets to one.
Karl:Navy was coming off a tough five-set road loss to Lehigh the night before and had to deal with a pretty fresh Army squad, and unfortunately they could not stop Army's outside hitters, who went on to have a very efficient match. The mids dropped the first two sets before winning the third one, but they just couldn't extend the match beyond that, losing the fourth set 25-22. Luckily, the star match would be played five weeks later in Annapolis, so there was still an opportunity to get a split for the year in a game that had just a little bit more riding on it. At first, the match looked just like a continuation of the last one. The Black Knights won the first two sets pretty easily 25-16 and 25-18. They were very aggressive on offense, registering 13 kills in the first game and 18 in the second, compared to just 7 and 11 for Navy. But thanks to the Llewellyn sisters, jamie and Jordan, the Mids began to find their footing. They had 16 kills in the third set to take it by a score of 25-20. The fourth set saw Navy fall behind 15-10 before they battled back to tie things up at 16. They kept the pressure on by forcing Army into some critical attack errors, resulting in another 25-20 win.
Karl:The deciding fifth set was a real fight. I watched it on ESPN+ and the one thing I can tell you is that the Wesley A Brown field house was absolutely packed. Navy football fans had just watched the Mids beat Alabama Birmingham 31-6, and a bunch of them came over to support the volleyball team. The crowd noise was unbelievable. Every single point was critical and initially the mids seemed to feed off that support. They had leads of 5-1 and 11-5 before the Black Knights ran off six in a row to tie the score at 11. Now, just as a reminder, the fifth set in college volleyball just goes to 15, not 25. So again, every point matters, navy won three out of the next four to get to 14-12 in match point.
Karl:Now the stage was set for an amazing finish. Freshman Arlie Hansen got a clean serve in play. Army's kill attempt was dug out. They set things up for Jamie Llewellyn but her try was turned away. Going back to the Navy side, the ball went right to sophomore Laney Ferry, who executed just about as perfect a bump pass as you could make under pressure to Hansen, who was one of the mid's main setters. The other one is Avery Miller, a senior with over 2,700 assists to her credit. Miller's also six feet tall and she is a legitimate offensive threat.
Karl:In this particular sequence. Miller was set up as an outside hitter on the right and Larson could set it to Jamie Llewellyn, who was in front of her on the left, or put up a back set to Miller. She decided to go with the back set and Miller absolutely hammered it home. Point, game set and match. The Mids had completed an unbelievable comeback and the entire field house just went absolutely berserk. It was an incredibly draining and emotional win. Coach Labrador made it a point to mention how important the crowd support was, especially over those last three sets. I'm going to put a link to these match highlights in the show notes as well. You just have to check them out.
Karl:This volleyball match had it all. There was the adversity that the team had to deal with in falling behind two sets to none, and then they had to manage their emotions and the momentum changes as they fought their way back. Finally, the composure they displayed in that pressure-packed fifth set was just unreal, and it's for all of those reasons that the women's volleyball team stands at number one on our list of the most memorable moments in Navy sports this year. All right, that does it for this year's countdown. Be sure to let me know what you think. Were there any sports moments that got your attention? If so, send me a short text and let me know. I'll be sure to share it in our next episode. Thanks for hanging in there with me up to this point. All we've got left is our question of the day, so stick around. All right, it is time to wrap things up with our question of the day, as we always do.
Karl:Let's go ahead and check the responses to the question from our last episode, and it went like this brady impressor was just named an all-american in outdoor track and field in the javelin for the third straight year. When was the last time someone from the men's track team earned this distinction of qualifying as an All-American for three consecutive seasons in his respective event? Was it A 1947, b 1976, c 1983, or D 2012? So, basically, here's how the responses broke down. The most popular one was C 1983. There were 85% of those who responded that gave that answer. Next was 1947, which you recall, was the last time the Mids had four athletes qualify for the NCAA championships. 14% of you went with that one. Then the next answer was B 1976. There were 1% of you who gave that answer, and no one selected D, which was 2012. So it turns out the right answer was C 1983. And I remember this well because, of course, that was when I was at the academy and I was just finishing up my junior year.
Karl:But the guy that everybody had their eyes on that year was Leo Williams. He was a Navy high jumper and he was from the class of 83, and he was something else. Williams won the NCAA Outdoor Championship in the high jump in 1981, to go along with two indoor championships in 1981 and 1982. His winning jump outdoors in 1981 was 2.25 meters, which converts to 7 feet 4.5 inches. Williams was named an All-American in 1981, 82, and 83. He also won a silver medal at the 1983 Pan Am Games and was an alternate on the 84 Olympic team after finishing fourth at the Olympic trials. So it's pretty clear that Leo Williams was one of the most decorated track athletes to ever pass through Annapolis, and congratulations to all of you who came up with that answer.
Karl:Now here's this week's question. You heard me say earlier that at the time of the Army-Navy volleyball star match, avery Miller had a total of 2,700 career assists. At the time of the Army-Navy volleyball star match, avery Miller had a total of 2,700 career assists. She ended up finishing with 2,748. Where does this rank her all-time among Navy volleyball players? Is it A first, b, second, c, third or D fourth? Think about that one and let me know what you came up with.
Karl:If you feel like answering right now, you can send me a text. This is assuming you're not driving, or anything like that. You can also go to the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page and give me your answer there. I'll look forward to getting your replies. That's going to do it for this edition of Navy Sports Central. Thank you all. So much for joining us Now. If you like what you've heard, please be sure to hit that follow button wherever you get your podcasts and remember to get the word to all the other Navy fans out there.
Karl:Our question of the day continues to be a show favorite. You can get in on that by joining the Navy Sports Nation group Facebook page and giving your answer to this week's question. You can also respond by sending us a text. All you need to do is click on the link in the show notes. And just a quick reminder the views expressed on Navy Sports Central are my own and do not reflect those of the US Naval Academy or Navy Athletics. By the way, the music used in Navy Sports Central comes to you courtesy of Audio Jungle. This is a great site for purchasing the rights to use the music from thousands of artists around the world, and those featured in the podcast will be credited in our show notes. Talk to you soon, everybody, until next time. This is karl Darden Go. Navy! Beat Army!
