Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Swimming/Diving Looks For Storybook End To Perfect Regular Season At Ivies
February 23, 2016 | Men's Swimming and Diving
Check back with GoPrincetonTigers.com all week for full coverage of this weekend's championship meet. On Wednesday, senior Byron Sanborn and junior Sam Smiddy will share thoughts in a video feature, while two-time reigning 200 IM champion Teo D'Alessandro 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
There isn't much more the Princeton men's swimming and diving team could have asked for from its 2015-16 season.
A wire-to-wire Big Al victory? Check.
The program's first HYP win since 2012? Check.
A perfect regular season? Check.
But this group, especially the upperclassmen, understands that it is the final checkmark that matters the most. They'll look to earn that one when the league's top swimmers meet at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in Providence, R.I., Feb. 25-27 for the 2016 Ivy League Championships.
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 Princeton upperclassmen still carry the memories from 2014, when Harvard ended a five-year Tiger championship streak with a win in its own pool. Princeton limited the drought to one year by claiming the 2015 title in DeNunzio Pool, but now the two top programs will meet in a neutral site for the championship.
While the Tigers dominated the HYP meet with 15 wins in 19 individual events, they know overall depth will be the critical in Providence. A quick scan of the Top 10 times per event heading into the weekend will give you a sense of just how strong both programs are (though Penn posted a significant number of top times as well, mostly coming during the December Total Performance Invitational), and how that depth could make this a thrilling weekend.
While depth matters, Princeton does bring a handful of potential individual champions into the meet. Sophomore Corey Okubo holds Ivy League top times in four different events (he can only swim three), while junior En-Wei Hu-Van Wright holds two of his own. Both were terrific in Princeton's sweep of Harvard and Yale last month, and both would love to stand atop the podium at the Ivy Championships.
Of course, the most important time to stand there is after the final event, when the team champion is announced. Here is a quick look at how the Tigers stack up in all events heading into Ivies:
FREE
Princeton swept the relays at the 2015 Ivy League Championships, but graduation took away two of its standouts in Harrison Wagner and Connor Maher. Fortunately, the cupboard remains fairly stocked. Both Sandy Bole and Julian Mackrel were members of winning relays, and Bole has the Ivy's third-fastest time in both the 100 and 200 this year.
Hu-Van Wright and Penn senior Eric Schultz have been the dominant sprinters thus far. Hu-Van Wright has the Ivy's best 50 and second-best 100 so far, while Schultz holds the other place in the Top 2. Sophomores Alexander Lewis and Ben Schafer could also factor here.
Freshman Murphy McQuet has the league's best 200 time, and he ranks in the Top 10 in the 500 as well. Junior Sam Smiddy was the Ivy League runner-up in the 500 last year, while senior Zach Ridout could provide some distance points for the Tigers.
BACK
Arguably Princeton's best stroke during the regular season, the Tigers go 1-2-4 in the 100 and 1-2-3 in the 200. Hu-Van Wright has the fastest 100 time, while Okubo has the league's best time in the 200 back. Senior Andrew Helber ranks second in the Ivy League in both events, and he is looking for his first Top-5 finish in an Ivy League championship event.
Both Lewis (100) and freshman Cole Buese (200) have highly ranked times in these events as well.
BREAST
Senior tri-captain Jack Pohlmann took third in both the 100 and 200 last year, and he will enter the championship weekend with the league's fastest time in the 100. Junior Brett Usinger has Top 5 times in both distances, including the second-fastest time in the 200, and senior tri-captain Byron Sanborn has been a consistent threat in both events throughout his career.
FLY
Schafer will take the second-fastest 100 time into the weekend, while Okubo and Buese are 1-2 in the 200. Okubo was the Ivy League runner-up in the event last year, while classmate Zach Buerger reached both A finals and has a Top 5 time in the 200.
IM
Princeton made a huge statement on Day 1 of the Ivy Championships last year by placing four of the top five in the 200 IM. Senior tri-captain Teo D'Alessandro will enter as the reigning Ivy champion, and he has the third-fastest time of the season entering the weekend.
Both Marco Bove and Sanborn also return after Top 5 finishes, so the Tigers will be going for another strong early statement.
The 400 IM was another Princeton highlight. Smiddy beat each competitor from every other school while posting what would have been a DeNunzio Pool-record time; unfortunately, he did that after an incredible swim by Okubo, who thrilled his home crowd with an Ivy record time of 3:43.95.
Both Smiddy and Buese should be there to push Okubo, while both Penn and Yale figure to be strong in the event.
DIVING
Senior Noam Altman-Kurosaki and juniors Nathan Makarewicz and Liam Fitzgerald had solid showings during HYP weekend, and are looking to reach the top of the podium on both boards at the Ivy Championships this year.