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Players Mentioned
Swimmers Complete Strong Summer With Several Olympic Trial Qualifications
September 07, 2011 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Members of the Princeton swimming programs have Ivy League titles on their mind for the winter of 2012, but next year's goals don't end there. Several swimmers from both the men's and women's teams earned Olympic Trials qualifying times during national competitions this past summer.
On the women's side, sophomore Lisa Boyce earned two Olympics Trials cuts, one in the 100 free and the other in the 100 back. Classmate Andrea Kropp earned cuts in the 100 and 200 breast, while incoming freshman Courtney Ciardiello earned them in the 100 fly and 200 back. Recent graduate and 2011 Ivy League Championships Swimmer of the Meet Megan Waters also earned a cut in the 50 free.
On the men's side, eight swimmers qualified for a total of 11 events; leading the way is senior tri-captain Colin Cordes, who qualified in the 100 free, 200 free and 200 back. Junior Will Lawley qualified in the 200 and 400 free, while sophomore Paul Nolle qualified in the 1500 free. Fellow sophomore Eric Materniak earned his qualifying time in the 200 breast.
A quartet of incoming freshmen joined this list. Oliver Bennett qualified in the 200 fly, while Conner Maher qualified in the 200 IM. Caleb Tuten qualified in the 400 IM, and Harrison Wagner made it in the 50 free.
Of those four, two earned national championships along the way. Maher won the YMCA national championship in the 200 IM and set the YMCA national record in doing so. Wagner won the 18 & Under national championship in the 50 free. He was then selected to compete on the USA Junior National Team and represent USA at World Junior Championships in the 50 freestyle.
The eight who qualified last summer will join sophomore Daniel Hasler, who achieved his qualifying time the previous summer in the 200 breast.
“It is great to see so many of our athletes racing and performing at an elite level in the summer," assistant coach Mitch Dalton said. "This will have a direct impact on our team performance this season. It is exciting to have nine Princeton student-athletes already have qualified for the Olympic Trials. With a little less than one year to go, we are eager to add some more names to the list and have a large group of swimmers competing at the highest level next June.”
Princeton had 10 swimmers competing at Senior Nationals (Bennett, Cordes, Hasler, Lawley, Lebovitz, Materniak, Nolle, Michael Strand, Tuten and Wagner), while six others competed at Junior Nationals (Mauricio Gonzales-Aranda, Michael Hauss, Conner Jager, Andrew Klutey, David Paulk and Ian Rea.
Hauss was a finalist in both the 100 and 200 freem while Paulk was a finalist in the 200 free.