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Princeton University
Yale
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Men's Swimming/Diving Stays Perfect At DeNunzio With Super Sunday Sweep Of Harvard, Yale
February 04, 2007 | Men's Swimming and Diving
The Princeton men's swimming and diving team entered Sunday's second session against Harvard with a tenuous two-point lead. The Tigers, who have never lost a home meet at DeNunzio, made sure that streak would continue by building the small edge into an eventual 190-163 victory over the Crimson. Princeton also completed its strong regular season with a 228-125 win over the Yale Bulldogs.
Despite only winning three of 10 events Saturday evening, Princeton still ended the first session leading Harvard 94-92 and Yale 127-59. The formula for success, just as it was at the 2006 EISL championships, was overall depth. Where the Tigers might not have won as many events, they took a significant amount of seconds and thirds, and that was enough to power them past their two Ivy rivals.
Princeton opened with a second- and third-place finish in the 200 free relay. The second-place team of Mike Carter, Mike Baity, Will Schaffer and Doug Lennox finished with a time of 1:21.94 and lost the event by less than .1 of a second.
Jon Hartmann placed third overall in the 200 free in 1:39.59, and Mike Zee followed up with a second-place finish in the 100 back (50.22). In the Harvard-Princeton competition of the 200 free, the Tigers placed four swimmers in the top five.
The first overall win for Princeton came from John LaMonaca, who won the 100 breast in 56.85, a time that was more than .5 of a second faster than any other swimmer. That win preceded the 200 butterfly, a stroke Princeton has owned in recent EISL championship meets. This would hold true this weekend as well, as Doug Lennox (1:46.77), Meir Hasbani (1:47.36), Dan Eckel (1:48.47) and Ryan Rimmele (1:50.20) finished 1-2-3-4 and the Tigers' most dominant event of the session.
Mike Carter's time of 21.06 placed him third in the 50 free, but Michael Papageorge bounced back with a win in the 1-meter diving competition. His score of 308.35 was the only above 300 and was only the beginning of a strong weekend for the Princeton freshman.
Talented Harvard swimmer Geoff Rathgeber won the 200 IM, but again Princeton was there to score big points in the event. Led by a second-place finish by Hasbani (1:48.89), Princeton finished in every spot from second to fifth in the event. Harvard went 1-2-3 in the 1650 free, with Princeton senior David Ashley taking fourth in 15:35.46, and the session ended with the 400 medley relay team of Zee, LaMonaca, Hasbani and Lennox taking second in 3:19.16.
Sunday's session opened with the 200 medley relay team of Zee, LaMonaca, Baity and Carter taking second in 1:31.19, and then Hasbani (3:52.14) and Tim Ruse (3:58.81) went 2-3 in the 400 IM. Lennox took second in the 100 free (44.98), although Princeton again had four of the top five finishers in the Harvard-Princeton showdown.
Dan O'Connor was edged out in the 200 back (1:48.92), but Lennox bounced back to give Princeton its first win of the day by taking the 100 fly in 48.20. Ashley placed fourth in the 500 free (4:31.00), with teammate Robert Griest adding a fifth-place finish in 4:31.32.
Papageorge claimed the second half of the diving sweep by topping teammate Stuart Malcolm on the 3-meter board. Papageorge won with 344.50 points, while Malcolm placed second with 314.10 points.
Hasbani followed with his first individual win of the weekend, taking the 200 breast in 2:04.99, while teammate Mike Ott placed third in 2:05.59. With the meet in hand, Princeton's 400 free relay team finished third in 3:06.89.
Princeton will be off until the 2007 EISL championships begin Feb. 22 at DeNunzio Pool.