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Tigers Take Aim At Dual Champ Yale, Ready To Host 2016 Ivy Championships
February 16, 2016 | Women's Swimming and Diving
Check back with GoPrincetonTigers.com all week for full coverage of this weekend's championship meet. On Wednesday, seniors Nikki Larson and Sada Stewart will share thoughts in a video feature, while classmate Beverly Nguyen will be a guest on Thursday's TigerCast. GoPrincetonTigers.com will also have daily recaps of the championship weekend.
CHAMPIONSHIP LINKS: Live Video Stream l Live Results
They were just naïve freshmen at the time, relishing a moment of pure exhilaration. They were so happy for their senior teammates, even though they couldn't fully appreciate what the moment truly meant to them.
How could they? There was so much time left in their Princeton careers.
Of course, four years fly by, and here stand the women of PUCSDT, preparing themselves for that final Ivy League Championship meet. Every third class gets to experience this meet twice at DeNunzio — the prologue and the epilogue, if you will. Nikki Larson, Beverly Nguyen and Sada Stewart are among the eight senior women who will receive that opportunity Feb. 18-20 when the Ivy League Championships return to DeNunzio Pool.
As always, the meet will be held in six sessions over three days. The preliminaries will begin daily at 11 am, while the finals will begin at 6 pm. All sessions will be streamed live on the Ivy League Digital Network, and live results links will be posted on GoPrincetonTigers.com and @PUTigers.
The 2015 Ivy League Championships were memorable for multiple reasons. Obviously, the main reason was the thrilling final-day comeback by the Tiger women, who trailed by 92 points with six events remaining. Final-day rallies are rare in championship weekends; rallies like that are almost unprecedented. Head coach Susan Teeter has celebrated 16 different Ivy League championships, but she had never experienced one like that.
Another reason for the memorable weekend was the performance of Yale, which finally broke through and made it a three-team chase. The Bulldogs actually led with two events remaining, but they didn't have enough points to fend off the final Tiger rally.
Anybody who may have thought that Yale's performance was a one-hit wonder were proven wrong last month. The Bulldogs put forth a terrific two days to sweep both Princeton and Harvard during HYP weekend, a showing that completed a perfect 7-0 run through the Ivy League.
That leads us into the 2016 Championships, and the questions that surround the three top championship contenders.
• How will Yale handle the favorite's label and the pressure of clinching the program's first Ivy title since 1997? The Bulldogs won't be sneaking up on anybody this year; instead, they'll have to deal with the expectations that only Princeton and Harvard have truly understood over the last decade.
• Speaking of Harvard, how will the Crimson react to the results of the last 12 months? Princeton rallied for a 2015 HYP tie, then rallied—in Boston—for the 2015 Ivy title. Then Crimson finishes third at HYP, a result they hadn't experienced since 2002.
• As for Princeton, how much will the home pool and resolve this team has shown in recent years factor into the 2016 Championships? The Tigers have lost HYP and come back to win Ivies in the past, but are there enough magical swims in them to push past this deep Yale squad?
Here is a quick look at several of the top Princeton swimmers/divers to watch for the Ivy League Championships:
FREE
Princeton won the 200 free relay to open Ivies last year, and it set a meet record in the 400 free relay to clinch the league title. All swimmers from both relays are back, including senior Elizabeth McDonald, the reigning 50 free champion and an A finalist in the 100 free last year.
The sophomore duo of Maddy Veith and Claire McIlmail should have a big impact in the free events as well. Veith has Top 10 times in both the 50 and 100, and she either reached the A final or won the B final in the 50, 100 and 200 last year. McIlmail is the reigning Ivy League champion in the 200, and she was an A finalist in both the 100 and 500.
Senior Nikki Larson, whose presence in the fly events will be highlighted later, is also a crucial member of the free relays, as well as an A finalist in the 100.
Yale holds a major advantage over the league in the distance events, but Princeton is hopeful that freshman Monica McGrath can help cut into the Bulldog point totals, similar to how Reese Iriondo did last year.
BACK
Harvard will be strong in the back events again, but Princeton has a 1-2 punch that it feels plenty good about. Senior Sada Stewart has reached the A final in every individual back event over the last three years, and she would love to clinch her first individual title at DeNunzio Pool this year.
Sophomore Lindsay Temple has Top 10 times in both events this season, including the third-best time in the 200; she took third in the 200 last year, a big part of Princeton's final-day championship rally. Freshman Joanna Curry could also factor here.
BREAST
Princeton knew it needed reinforcements in this stroke last year, but few could have guessed just how potent it could make this group in just 12 months. While junior tri-captain Olivia Chan brings plenty of championship-weekend experience, this group is loaded with talented freshmen like Kate Didion, Lindsey Swartz, Karen Zhang and Janet Zhao, each of whom has at least one Top-10 time in a breast event (and most have two).
Of course, you never know exactly how a freshman will handle a moment like this, but the coaching staff is excited to see how this group competes together at home.
FLY
The Tigers made big strides in the fly last season, especially with the likes of McDonald and Larson in the 100 mix. Fellow senior Morgan Karetnick made both A finals last season, and she has Top 10 times in both events already this year.
Freshman Isabel Reis has the second-fastest 200 time this season, and she could be set up for a fun Saturday evening showdown with Harvard freshman Sonia Wang; those are the only two Ivy swimmers with sub-1:58 times this season. Curry could also contend.
IM
Nguyen has reached the A final in both the 200 and 400 in each of the last three Ivy League Championships; like Stewart, she would love to see her first individual title come in her final competitive weekend at DeNunzio. Ironically, she could battle for that title against Stewart, who enters the weekend with the league's second-fastest 400 IM time.
Chan and Reis are also swimmers to watch in these events.
DIVING
Injuries have really hampered the Princeton diving group this season, so this could be a real wild card for the home squad. The reigning Ivy League Championships Diver of the Meet, Caitlin Chambers, didn't dive during HYP weekend, though classmates Deborah Daly and Lisa Li did, and both have competed in A finals.
Freshman Carolyn MacFarlane and sophomore Colleen McHugh could also impact the group.