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Princeton University
Ivy Championship
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Women's Swimming/Diving Claims Three Individual Wins During Bizarre Opening Ivy Session
February 27, 2009 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Thursday night's opening session of the 2009 Ivy League Championships will be one that Princeton head coach Susan Teeter won't soon forget, although it won't be for the right reasons. On a night when three of her competitors won individual Ivy League championships, Teeter was left unsure of where her team actually stood in the team race -- despite the swimming being finished for the evening.
Officially, members of the three-time defending Ivy League champion Princeton women's swimming and diving team went to bed Thursday night trailing Harvard by 16 points through six events. The Crimson currently has 353 points, while Princeton has 337 and third-place Yale has 189.
But when it's all said and done, those won't be the final scores of the first day. Confused? So was everybody else at the Nassau County Aquatics Center in East Meadow, N.Y.
Timing issues in the 200 free relay led to six of the eight programs getting disqualified in the first championship event of the weekend. The inevitable coaching protest led to an official review of the event, which won't be completed until Friday. Because of the issues that plagued the first relay, the 400 medley relay was not counted towards the current team score either; it will also be decided upon on Friday.
Thus, only four of the six events Thursday night are currently being counted towards the team total. Princeton came away with three of them, but Harvard's depth helped carry the Crimson to a lead after (most of) the first day.
The individual events began with another Ivy League championship record-setting performance by junior Alicia Aemisegger, who defended her 2007 and 2008 Ivy League titles in the 500 with a winning time of 4:38.96. The time barely missed an NCAA A-cut, but it was enough to beat Harvard's Alexandra Clarke by nearly four full seconds; the win was Aemisegger's seventh individual Ivy League title in as many tries.
Harvard did pick up significant points in the event by finishing second, third, fourth and fifth. The Tigers did get another championship finalist in senior Monika Friedman; the 2008 double-champion in the fly placed seventh in a time of 4:50.54. Princeton also got an 11th-place finish by freshman Aislinn Smalling, who scored 16 team points with a time of 4:54.55.
Princeton picked up another three-time champion one event later when junior Courtney Kilkuts recorded an NCAA B-cut time and defended her 2007 and 2008 titles in the 200 IM with a winning mark of 2:00.27. Princeton added a third-place finish from talented freshman Jillian Altenburger, who finished in 2:01.01. Freshman Kerry Gruendel added a 19th-place finish in 2:06.68, which helped Princeton's effort after Harvard placed six swimmers between sixth- and 16th-place.
Sophomore Megan Waters nearly made it 3-for-3, but she was barely edged out in the 50 free by Dartmouth's Hillary Preston, who won her first Ivy League title in a time of 23.29. Waters improved on her sixth-place finish last year by going 23.34 for second place, which topped Harvard's Katy Hinkle by .04 of a second. Princeton senior co-captain Justina DiFazio claimed seventh in the championship final with a time of 23.61, while Emily Trautner took 13th in 24.03.
Teeter was hopeful that her diving group would be a major boost to Princeton's championship hopes, and that group got it done during the 1-meter competition. The effort was led by the 2007 Ivy League Championships Diver of the Meet Katie Giarra, who won Thursday's final with a score of 312.05 points. She led a group of five Tigers who placed in the event top 10.
Freshman Courtney Fieldman made an immediate impact in the event by placing third with 264.05 points, while senior Peggy Kearns took fifth with 248.85 points. Two Princeton divers may have been disappointed to not make the championship finals, but they made good with their second chances. Senior Shelby Rudd won the consolation final and took ninth overall with 258.05 points, while sophomore Carolyn Littlefield finished just behind with 249.00 points. Freshman Christina Kirkwood rounded out an outstanding effort with a 13th-place finish with 212.25.
With six divers in the top 16, as compared to two for Harvard, Princeton was able to make up 90 team points on the front-running Crimson in the final individual event of the evening.
GoPrincetonTigers.com will have a full recap following Friday's championship session. If there is an earlier update to the team totals, it will be posted on TigerBlog.