Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Day Two
Players Mentioned
Five Victories Keep Tigers Ahead During Thrilling Championship Weekend
March 05, 2011 | Men's Swimming and Diving
With five victories in nine events, Princeton turned a deficit as great as 52 points into a lead through two days of a thrilling 2011 Ivy League Men's Swimming & Diving Championships.
While the basketball court may draw the most attention at Harvard tomorrow, there will be no shortage of excitement in Blodgett Pool. Neither Princeton nor Harvard has won an Ivy League title in its opponent's pool since 2002, and only once has the team that lost the regular season dual meet gone on to win the Ivy League title.
Princeton, however, has put itself in position to overcome the odds and win a third straight title. Of course, a loaded Harvard squad and a wild home environment will make the challenge a daunting one.
The Tigers lead the field with 950 points, while Harvard stands second with 916.5 points. No other team is within 200 points of the Crimson, although Columbia and Yale will have a good battle for third.
Princeton opened Friday's championship session with its third relay victory in as many tries. Following its win in the 400 medley relay to end Thursday's competition, Princeton got out to an early lead and won the 200 free relay by nearly one second.
Sophomore Kaspar Raigla gave the Tigers an early edge with a 22.02 split in the back, and junior Jon Christensen followed with a 25.04 split in the breast. With strong legs by junior Mike Monovoukas and senior Geoff Faux, the Tigers won with a time of 1:28.15. Penn took second in 1:29.13, while Harvard finished fourth in 1:29.99.
The Crimson made its big move over the next two events. Harvard got two of the top four finishers and three of the top 12 in the 1650, the opening individual event of Friday's evening session. Princeton did get quality points from freshman Paul Nolle, who took third in the mile in a time of 15:23.26.
Senior Colin Hanna won the 400 IM in 3:50.30, but with four finalists ending in the top seven, the Crimson reclaimed the lead by 52 points. The Crimson ended in spots two and five through seven, while Princeton freshman Eric Materniak took eighth in 4:03.02.
Yale went 1-2 in the 100 fly, while Monovoukas took third in 48.39. Raigla finished seventh in 49.28, and with only one Harvard swimmer in the final, Princeton was able to cut into the deficit. Junior Charlie Wang added a victory in the consolation final in 48.87, and Princeton ended the event within 28 points of the lead.
The annual showdown between Christensen and Penn's Brendan McHugh in the Ivy League Championship finals continued in the 100 breast final, and McHugh ended winning in a meet-record time of 53.66. Christensen placed second in 54.28, while freshman teammate K.J. Park placed fourth in 56.09.
The 100 breast was the 11th of 21 championship events, and the Tigers reclaimed the lead by all of 3.5 points. To say the meet was heading towards a thrilling finish was quite the understatement.
Princeton started its strong finish in the 100 back, where Raigla topped Columbia's Adam Powell in a Princeton-record time of 48.11 to win the Ivy title. Harvard had two in the championship final, but Wang added a second consolation win in 50.25. Both Faux and freshman Adam Lebovitz also made the consolation final, allowing the Tiger lead to grow to nearly 30 points.
The swimmers took a break at that point, and attention turned to the 3-meter board, where both Princeton and Harvard qualified two into the championship final. Princeton sophomore Stevie Vines had the best preliminary score and had the advantage of diving last, and he came into his last dive trailing Harvard's Zac Ranta for the win.
When he hit the water, he had clinched his first Ivy title. Vines, who finished second in both events last year, won the 3-meter competition with 351.95 points, while junior Tom Wells placed eighth with 265.35 points. Wells made a huge contribution by qualifying for the championship final, assuring him at least 22 team points, while freshman Mark O'Connell placed 12th with 280.29 points.
Princeton ended the session the same way it began, as the quartet of Hanna, sophomore Will Lawley, Christensen and Cordes won the 800 free relay in 6:31.96, almost three full seconds faster than the Crimson's second-place time. Lawley gave Princeton a lead at the midway point, and veterans Christensen and Cordes made sure it stood.
The final day of competition will include seven championship events: the 1000 free, the 200 back, the 100 free, the 200 breast, the 200 fly, the 1-meter diving and the 400 free relay. Preliminaries will begin at 11 a.m., and finals will begin at 6 p.m.