Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Day Three
Players Mentioned
Princeton Holds On For Thrilling 5.5-Point Win, Ivy League Championship
March 06, 2011 | Men's Swimming and Diving
In as dramatic a competition as any the Ivy League is likely to see this year, the Princeton men's swimming & diving team held off the host Harvard Crimson by a mere 5.5 points to win the 2011 Ivy League title for its third straight championship.
It's rare when the overall team title is up for grabs heading into the 21st and final event, but that was the situation when the eight teams took the blocks for the championship-concluding 400 free relay. Princeton led Harvard by 7.5 points going into the final, and with the winner earning at least eight more points than anybody in the field, either team would clinch the championship by winning the free relay.
In the end, Harvard beat Princeton.
But just before that, Columbia beat Harvard.
Thus, Princeton beat Harvard.
Columbia, led by sprint standout Adam Powell, took the 64 team points by winning the 400 free relay in 2:54.83. Harvard placed second in 2:57.95, while Princeton took third in 2:58.18. The Crimson gained two points with the second-place finish, but it needed 5.5 more.
Princeton finished the meet with 1400 points, while Harvard finished second with 1394.5 points. Columbia ended up third with 1078.5 points.
Harvard rallied each day after trailing after Thursday's session, and a big move in the 19th and 20th events put the Crimson in position to win. However, several strong individual swims in earlier events, including a pair of impressive victories from its top juniors, gave Princeton enough of a margin to pull off the thiller.
Princeton overcame some big obstacles in three-peating as Ivy champion. Neither Princeton nor Harvard had won an Ivy League title in its rival's pool since 2002, and only once since 2003 had the runner-up at H-Y-P come back to win the Ivy title.
But Princeton had the answers this weekend, and it has the championship to show for it.
Princeton needed to start strong in the 1000, and it swam well in each of the last two timed heats. In the third heat, Princeton's Travis McNamara (9:15.63) and Colin Hanna (9:15.90) went 1-2 and all but assured themselves spots in the top eight.
In the final heat, Dartmouth freshman Nejc Zupan clinched an impressive win in 9:03.37, while Princeton freshman Paul Nolle held off Harvard freshman Wes Stearns, the top seed going in, to finish second in 9:06.91. McNamara and Hanna jumped from the third timed heat to the final top five, with McNamara finishing fourth and Hanna taking fifth.
After the event, Princeton held a 22.5-point lead over Harvard with 1,029 points.
Princeton gained on its lead in the 200 back with a 1-2 finish. Junior Colin Cordes defended his 2010 title with a convincing win in 1:44.55, while sophomore Kaspar Raigla finished nearly two seconds ahead of the rest of the field in 1:46.76. Harvard placed third and sixth in the event, with Robert Newell finishing behind Raigla in 1:48.70.
The Tigers lead gained even more because it had a 2-0 edge on Harvard in the consolation final. Freshman Adam Lebovitz won the 'B' final in 1:48.26, while classmate Nicholas Beaulieu finished third in 1:50.39. Those two finishes helped the Tigers improve their lead to 68.5 points with five remaining.
Harvard cut into the lead by seven points in the 100 free after qualifying three in the championship final and getting a second-place finish from freshman Chris Satterthwaite, who topped Princeton's Matt LaMonaca by .01 of a second. LaMonaca took third in 44.77 seconds, while senior Geoff Faux finished seventh in 45.50.
Princeton kept the event from getting out of hand with strong showings in both the consolation and bonus final. Junior Matt LaMonaca won the consolation final in 45.00, while both Will Lawley and Andres Tung took two of the top three spots in the bonus final.
One of the most highly anticipated showdowns came in the 200 breast final, as Princeton's Jon Christensen met Penn's Brendan McHugh, who was coming off a win in the 100 final. McHugh got out to an early lead, but Christensen was not going to let this one get away. His final 100 led him to an Ivy League record and winning time of 1:56.33.
The Tigers also got a sixth-place finish from freshman K.J. Park (2:01.90) and a consolation final win from Materniak in 2:03.63. Harvard placed one in the championship final and two in the consolation final, but the wins in both finals helped Princeton build its lead to 81.5 points with three events remaining.
It was critical to get the lead as large as possible, because Harvard had some major points just waiting to get posted.
With two finalists in the 200 fly, Princeton needed as many points as it could get in the other two finals. Senior Brett Lullo finished 13th overall in 1:51.27, while junior Charlie Wang took 21st in 1:53.55. Harvard went 3-4 in the championship final, which was won by Columbia's Hyun Lee in 1:46.36, and gained 47 points on Princeton in the event.
Harvard made another move in the 1-meter diving competition, placing two in the championship final and getting a win from sophomore Michael Stanton. Princeton sophomore Stevie Vines, the 3-meter winner from Friday night, took second with 320.88 points. The Tigers also got a 14th-place finish from junior Tom Wells, who scored 263.85 points.
Vines finished the meet as the Ivy League Championships Diver of the Meet, giving Princeton a sweep of that honor in 2011. Freshman Rachel Zambrowicz took the honor last weekend in the women's Ivy championship victory.
That set everything up for the 400 free relay, and Columbia took care of business for both itself and Princeton. The Tigers touched the wall third for easily its most dramatic of three straight Ivy League titles.