Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
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Women's Swimming/Diving Uses Team Effort To Claim HYP Victory
January 31, 2009 | Women's Swimming and Diving
The Princeton women's swimming and diving team completed a terrific weekend effort at Blodgett Pool in Cambridge, Mass. With four wins during Saturday's HYP second session, the undefeated Tigers earned a 170-148.5 victory over Harvard and a 209-110 win over Yale.
While it made for an exciting win for Princeton, the close score with Harvard will reinforce the importance of pushing itself even harder as the 2009 Ivy League Championships get closer.
“What a great team effort for us, especially with so many of our swimmers dealing with sickness,” head coach Susan Teeter said, referring to a stomach bug that hit the team hard Thursday. “We had a lot of people step up, and we needed it against a really fast Harvard squad. I think this weekend sets up a very exciting championship meet. We'll have to be even faster. But this was a terrific weekend for us, with a lot of great individual performances.”
The session started with a win for sophomore Megan Waters, who won the 100 free in 50.30. Waters won two meets over the weekend and could be dangerous at the conference meet in the third, as a false start cost her a chance at the 50 free. Freshman Jillian Altenburger built on her strong first HYP with a second-place finish in 50.80.
Harvard's Meghan Laddy followed with a win in the 200 back (2:01.58), but Princeton sophomore Ming Ong made sure the Tigers got some valuable points out of the event by placing third in 2:04.98.
Princeton got more big points out of the 200 breast, even though Yale's Susan Kim won the event 2:15.08. Princeton picked up the next two spots, with junior Courtney Kilkuts taking second in 2:15.98 and freshman Caitlin Baran finishing third in 2:20.40.
All-America junior Alicia Aemisegger put forth another winning swim in the 500; her victory in 4:43.53 beat five different Crimson swimmers to the wall in spots two through six. A pair of freshman showed they could be factors in this event over the next four years, as Lauren Shanley finished seventh in 5:01.16 and Aislinn Smalling took eighth in 5:01.27.
Harvard's Kate Mills won the 100 fly in 55.52, while Princeton tri-captain Justina DiFazio took fifth in 56.97.
Like Friday night, diving proved to be a big advantage for the Tigers. Princeton all but clinched the victory on the 3-meter board by taking three of the top four spots. As she did on the 1-meter board, senior Katie Giarra won the event with 323.05 points. Sophomore Carolyn Littlefield took third with 254.80 points, while senior Shelby Rudd took fourth with 253.30 points.
“I can't say enough about our divers this weekend,” Teeter said. “They were terrific. They played a major role in the victory.”
The final Princeton win of the meet came from 2008 NCAA qualifier Kilkuts, who won the 200 IM in 2:02.82. Like many of her classmates, freshman Kerry Gruendel picked up quality points with a third-place finish in 2:06.59.
The session ended with the Princeton team of Altenburger, Smalling, Emily Trautner and DiFazio taking fourth in the 400 free relay in a time of 3:29.95.
Princeton's final dual meet of the season will come next Saturday at Columbia; after that, the Tigers will train for the Ivy League championship meet, which takes place the final three days of February in Long Island.