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Women Rally, Claim Final Relay, To Clinch Tie With Harvard At H-Y-P Meet
January 31, 2015 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Day 1 Recap l Day 1 Results l Day 2 Results
The Ivy League swimming and diving championships don't need extra hype. It's annually one of the most anticipated events of the year, and it always draws loud, excited cheering sections for all eight programs.
But if you wanted to add a little hype, this weekend was the ideal way to do it. Princeton and Harvard, which has combined to win every Ivy League title this century, went toe-to-toe over two days in Blodgett Pool — site of the 2015 Ivy League Championships — and settled nothing.
So why not settle it when everything is on the line?
Princeton rallied over the final four events to produce a 150-150 tie against Harvard in the annual H-Y-P meet, marking the first tie in program history. The Tigers needed a win in the final event, the 400 free relay, to assure themselves no worse than a split; the quartet of Katie Diller, Nikki Larson, Claire McIlmail and Mallory Remick handled the moment in winning fashion, going 3:23.96 to top Harvard by less than a quarter of a second.
The Crimson did their part to assure the tie, going 2-3 in the event to reach the 150-point mark. Princeton added a 169.5-130.5 victory over Yale to move to 5-0-1 in the Ivy League this season.
Harvard, which trailed by four team points entering the second day, made a big move early in the second session to grab a lead. Following a winning tie by Larson and Diller (50.64) in the 100 free, the Crimson won the 200 back, 200 breast and 500 free to build a sizable lead.
Princeton answered back, the way you'd expect a championship contender to do.
Elizabeth McDonald, Larson and Elsa Welshofer each topped all Harvard swimmers in the 100 fly to begin the comeback, and Caitlin Chambers completed a sweep of the H-Y-P diving events by claiming the 1-meter event with 298.00 points. Classmate Deborah Daly took third with 267.45 points, less than one point better than the next Crimson diver.
In an event this close, every point mattered.
Junior Beverly Nguyen took second in the 200 IM (2:04.77), while sophomore Olivia Chan finished fourth in 2:05.64. That event set up the 400 free relay, with both teams knowing exactly what they needed to win.
And what they needed not to lose. That is where both were successful.
Princeton will cap its regular season next Friday at Columbia, and then will turn its attention to Feb. 19-21, when all eight Ivy teams meet at Blodgett Pool to determine the Ivy champion.
"Our women put together two good sessions of racing and boards this weekend and worked on some of little things that need to be in place moving forward," assistant coach Suzanne Yee said. "Both our divers and swimmers focused on what they needed to do individually for the team. We are fortunate to have two great teams of competitors to race and dive against at this time of the season, both of which will be ready to have a great Ivy meet in three weeks."