Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Day Two
Players Mentioned
Youth, Experience Join Forces To Push Princeton To Brink Of Ivy Title
February 26, 2011 | Women's Swimming and Diving
With five victories in nine events, the Princeton women's swimming and diving team built a nearly 100-point lead over Harvard through two days of the 2011 Ivy League Championships.
Victories by both youth and experience have the Tigers on the brink of their second straight Ivy League title and their 10th in the last 12 years. Freshmen Andrea Kropp and Lisa Boyce joined seniors Megan Waters and Carolyn Littlefield as individual Ivy champions, while the 200 medley relay team won in Ivy League record time.
Princeton enters the final day with 1054.5 points, while Harvard stands second with 955 points. Third place remains very close, with Yale holding a four-point edge over Penn (600-596).
"In every event, we have people doing great jobs," head coach Susan Teeter said. "We have lifetime swims coming from all over the place. We know we have a huge battle coming tomorrow, and we're going to have to be ready to compete all the way through the final relay."
Princeton kept its perfect stretch of relay wins going by taking the 200 medley relay in an Ivy League record time of 1:39.80. Boyce led the way, getting Princeton out in the lead with a split of 25.17 in the back. Kropp, her classmate, followed with a breast split of 28.72 to keep the Tigers ahead by more than half a second.
Sophomore Carter Stephens won her 50 fly split in 23.86, giving Waters a margin for error in her 50 free anchor leg. Considering the Tiger senior had won the 50 free individual title the night before, she didn't need much added assistance. Swimming the leg in 22.05, the fastest mark in the field, Waters completed the record relay and gave Princeton its first of multiple victories during the fourth of six sessions.
The first individual event of the evening was a battle of youth, with Princeton's Maureen McCotter taking on Penn's Kristi Edelson for the 1650 title. Edelson became the second Penn freshman to win a title over the weekend, taking the event in 16:38.19, while McCotter was within a second of the win and placed second in 16:38.98.
Harvard's Christine Kaufmann took third in 16:43.95, but senior co-captain Ming Ong gave Princeton two in the top four with a lifetime best and fourth-place time of 16:46.65.
Harvard senior Kate Mills won the 400 IM in 4:15.57, and the Crimson made a big move at Princeton in the event with three of the top four finishers. Princeton freshman Rebecca Lewinson did give the Tigers' a fifth-place finish with a time of 4:22.66.
Through that event, the ninth of 21, Harvard had cut the deficit to a manageable 31.5 points. Princeton made sure it would get no closer heading into Saturday's final sessions of the 2011 championship meet.
That run started in a big way, with Princeton going 1-2 in the 100 fly final. Waters won her second individual event of the weekend by recording a B-cut time of 53.43, while Stephens followed in 54.00 to finish second. Fellow Princeton sophomore Kathy Qu made it three in the top five by placing fifth in 55.43.
In one event, Princeton more than doubled its lead and held a 70-point edge moving into the midway point of the meet.
"I am super excited for Megan Waters and the way she is competing this weekend," Teeter said. "I'm so proud of the woman she has become. She has been amazing this weekend and throughout her senior year."
The 200 free final provided a showdown between two reigning league champions. Princeton's Jillian Altenburger was the defending champion in this event, while Penn freshman Shelby Fortin won the 500 free title Thursday night. Those two would break free from the field going into the final 50, and Fortin gave the Quaker freshmen a third title by winning in 1:47.06.
Altenburger topped the rest of the field with a second-place finish in 1:47.49, while junior teammate Aislinn Smalling finished seventh in 1:49.49. It was the second championship final for Smalling, who should be a contender in Saturday's 1000 final as well.
Kropp won her first Ivy League individual title by winning the 100 breast, although she was pushed hard by a classmate from Brown. Kropp built a sizable lead by the midway point of the race, but Brown's Briana Borgolini made a hard charge in the second half of the final and got within a .1 of a second. Kropp, however, would not relinquish the lead and won the title in a B-cut time of 1:01.48.
Junior Kerry Gruendel gave Princeton a second qualifier in the final and placed eighth in a time of 1:05.10.
Another 1-2 Princeton finish in the 100 back continued to build the Tiger lead. Boyce, who set the Princeton record in this event earlier in the year, broke the meet record during the preliminary session with a time of 54.19; her time of 54.76 in the nightcap was good enough to win her first individual title.
Junior co-captain Meredith Monroe is the defending Ivy League champion in the 200 back, and she picked up a second-place finish in the 100 with a time of 54.94. Freshman Karen Wang added a tenth-place finish in 56.39, which gave the Tigers a 130-point edge through 12 swimming events.
In the championship preview video from GoPrincetonTigers.TV, senior diver Carolyn Littlefield credited her sister Maggie '05 as a major reason for coming to Princeton in the first place and talked of how special it would to have her older sister in the stands for her final home meet.
And, with a wry smile, she added this:
"Obviously, I'd also like to win an event, which is something she never did. Love ya, Mags."
Mission accomplished.
Coming off her double win at the H-Y-P meet in early February, Littlefield won her first Ivy League title by taking the three-meter competition with 278.25 points. Freshman teammate Rachel Zambrowicz finished third with 263.30 points, while junior Christina Kirkwood placed eighth with 233.95 points.
"I'm just so proud of Carolyn," Teeter said. "She is polishing off her career in an amazing way, winning her first events at H-Y-P and coming here to win an Ivy title on her own board. Her parents are here, her sister is here, and she did a great job tonight."
The Crimson placed four in the final and got a second-place finish by Brittany Powell (264.15), but the high finishes by both Littlefield and Zambrowicz were huge for the Tigers.
The evening concluded with Harvard winning its first relay of the weekend. The Crimson won the 800 free relay in 7:18.00, while the Tiger quartet of Ong, Smalling, Qu and Altenburger took third in 7:21.28.
The final day of the 2011 Ivy League championships will begin with a preliminary session at 11 a.m., and a finals session at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at the door, and the entire day can be seen live on GoPrincetonTigers.TV.
The final championship session will begin with the 1000 free and follow with the 200 back, the 100 free, the 200 breast, the 200 fly, the one-meter diving and the 400 free relay.