Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Day One
Players Mentioned
Princeton Wins Three, Holds Slim Lead Through Day 1 Of Ivy Champs
March 04, 2011 | Men's Swimming and Diving
On the first day of the H-Y-P weekend, it was the Harvard men who staggered Princeton with a strong opening session. With the Ivy League title on the line, Princeton was more than happy to return the favor Thursday.
In its top rival's home pool, Princeton ended the first day of the championship meet with 364 team points, while Harvard stood second with 341 points. Columbia is third with 237 points, while Cornell is fourth with 215.5 points.
Realistically, Princeton's lead is actually 18 points, as the diving consolation scores have not been factored into the team points. Both teams have two divers in Friday's championship final.
Princeton opened the championship session by winning the 200 free relay, as the quartet of senior Geoffrey Faux, junior Matt LaMonaca, junior Mike Monovoukas and junior Colin Cordes won in 1:20.00. The Tigers trailed a strong sprint quartet from Columbia through 150 yards, but Cordes rallied in the final 50 yards with a split of 19.86 to take Princeton's first of three victories on the evening.
The Crimson put four in the first individual final of the weekend, the 500 free, and found itself with a substantial lead after the event. Columbia senior Hyun Lee was impressive with a winning time of 4:20.11, while Harvard freshman Wes Stearns took second in 4:24.98.
Princeton did place one in the 'A' final, and freshman Paul Nolle made it count. He finished third in a B-cut time of 4:25.67, more than two seconds faster than the remainder of the field. Junior teammate Travis McNamara missed out on the championship final, but he bounced back by winning the consolation final in 4:28.81.
Princeton started to chip away at the Harvard lead in the 200 IM, where it placed two in the championship final and ended up in two of the three top spots. Junior Jon Christensen had the best preliminary time, and he backed it up with a winning effort in 1:45.91.
Penn junior Brendan McHugh, who will likely battle Christensen for both breast titles on Friday and Saturday, placed second in 1:47.28, and Tiger senior co-captain Colin Hanna finished third in 1:47.97.
At that moment, Harvard led by 64.5 points. It wouldn't last long.
A big key to Princeton's win in the 2010 championships was its dominance in the sprints, and the Tigers knew they would need to be strong there once again to win in Harvard's pool. That strength was there on day one, as Princeton represented half of the championship field in the 50 free. Columbia senior Adam Powell defended his 50 free title with a win in 19.74, while Crimson freshman Oliver Lee took second in 20.13.
Four of the next five to touch the wall would do so in Orange and Black. Faux placed third in 20.19, while Cordes - off his brilliant anchor leg in the 200 free relay - took fourth in 20.39. Monovoukas finished sixth in 20.52, while LaMonaca ended seventh in 20.58.
With that event, Princeton jumped back on top by 11 points.
Harvard's Michael Stanton won the consolation diving final with 366.87 points, while Princeton's Mark O'Connell placed fourth with 280.29 points. The fact that Stanton missed the championship final was one of the biggest stories of the first day; Stanton was the reigning Ivy League Championships Diver of the Meet after sweeping both boards last year.
Princeton and Harvard both placed two in the championship final, and the Tigers did it with two of the top three scores. Sophomore Stevie Vines, who placed second to Stanton in both events last year, had the top prelim score, while junior Tom Wells finished an impressive third. Those scores won't factor into the finals, but it does assure Princeton the same number of championship finalists.
Princeton finished the day by winning the 400 medley relay in 3:13.61. Sophomore Kaspar Raigla gave the Tigers an early lead with a back split of 48.97, and Christensen followed with a strong split of 53.09. Monovoukas put Princeton in position with a strong third leg, and Cordes held off Powell in the final 100 to win in 3:13.61.
Friday will begin with a preliminary session at 11 a.m., and conclude with a championship session at 6 p.m. The championship finals on Friday will include the 200 medley relay, the 1650, the 400 IM, the 100 fly, the 200 free, the 100 breast, the 100 back, the 3-meter diving final and the 800 free relay.