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Men's Swimming/Diving Remains Perfect At DeNunzio, Sweeps HYP
January 30, 2010 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Sophomore Jon Christensen and his Princeton teammates left Friday knowing that the 2010 HYP meet was a little too close for comfort. With renewed energy and a terrific start, the undefeated Princeton Tigers took care of business on Saturday to remain undefeated with victories over both Harvard and Yale.
With only a 100-86 lead over Harvard at the midway, Princeton won six of nine events Saturday to claim a 203-150 victory over Harvard and a 242-106 victory over Yale. The Crimson defeated Yale 249-101 to complete the tri-meet.
"The meet was a closer than we hoped on Friday," said sophomore Jon Christensen, who led the Princeton effort with three individual wins. "The guys came out fired up today. The first relay went well for us, and that got us going."
The 200 medley relay, event 11 of the meet, began Saturday's session, and the foursome of Kaspar Raigla, Christensen, Mike Monovoukas and Matt Lamonaca won the event in 1:30.11, more than a second faster than the field. Princeton's B squad of Charley Wang, George Rae-Grant, David Reid and Geoff Faux topped the remaining B squads in a time of 1:32.52.
Senior Daniel Dickerson, the reigning Ivy League champion in the one-meter diving competition, won that event Saturday with 304.30 points, while Tom Wells placed seventh with 265.75 points.
Harvard claimed a win in the 400 IM when Niall Janney won in 3:56.47, while Princeton's Matt Jacobson finished second in 3:59.65. It would be short-lived momentum for the Crimson, though, as Princeton went 1-2-3 in the 100 free. Matt Lamonaca won the event in 44.84, while Jon Hartmann (45.14) and Andres Tung (45.34) took the next three spots in the event.
Yale picked up its first win of the meet in the 200 back, as Tom Robinson surged past Princeton's Colin Cordes in the final 50 to win in a time of 1:48.16. Cordes stayed ahead of a pair of Crimson swimmers with a second-place time of 1:48.27. Tiger sophomore Bryan Tay followed with a win in the 100 fly, topping Yale's Goksu Bicer in 49.13. Both Monovoukas (49.55) and David Reid (49.73) finished with top-five times for Princeton.
Harvard dominated the field in the 500 free, with Mason Brunnick heading a 1-2-3-4 Crimson finish in 4:26.82. Princeton's top finisher was Travis McNamara, who took eighth in 4:37.56. Christensen followed with his third individual win of the weekend in the 200 breast; his time of 2:01.38 beat the field by more than two seconds.
"I came into the meet hoping to perform up to my expectations," Christensen said. "I'm satisfied with my performance. This is the most exciting meet for Princeton, and we all took it seriously, especially with it being at DeNunzio."
Princeton ended the meet in style, going 1-2 in the 400 free relay. The foursome of Lamonaca, Tung, Tay and Hartmann won the event in 3:00.71, while the team of Monovoukas, Brian Barrett, Geoff Faux and Cordes placed second in 3:03.08.
Not only does the sweep keep Princeton undefeated on the season (5-0, 5-0 Ivy League), it also extends a 20-year win streak at DeNunzio Pool. The Princeton men have never lost a home dual, and will have two more opportunities to extend that streak in February, beginning with a challenging dual against Navy on Feb. 6 at 1 p.m.