Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Ivy Day 1
Players Mentioned
Teo D'Alessandro Hits Trifecta With Record-Setting 200 IM; Tigers Stand 2nd
February 26, 2016 | Men's Swimming and Diving
DAY 1 RESULTS l CHAMPIONSHIP CENTRAL
When senior co-captain Teo D'Alessandro made his final turn, he couldn't have known the person making the biggest chase at his title was his own classmate. He was more concerned with his own chase — a chase for valuable team points, and for history of his own.
D'Alessandro fended off the hard-charging Marco Bove to win his third straight 200 IM title during Thursday's evening session of the 2016 Ivy League Men's Swimming & Diving Championships. That 1-2 finish was a crucial one for Princeton, which stands second to Harvard with two days remaining in the championship meet at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center in Providence.
Princeton also made a strong charge to close the evening, as the quartet of En-Wei Hu-Van Wright, Jack Pohlmann, Ben Schafer and Sandy Bole won the 400 medley relay in a meet record time of 3:09.20. That performance gave Princeton 437 points to end the evening, while Harvard holds the Day 1 lead with 466. Penn currently stands third with 340.
D'Alessandro put on a show to win his third straight 200 IM title. He led at every split, posting the fastest opening and closing 50, to break his own Princeton record in a time of 1:44.33. D'Alessandro has won this event each of the last three years; the only swimmer to beat him was Nejc Zupan of Dartmouth, and that performance still stands as the Ivy League record (1:43.94).
Since then, the event has belonged to D'Alessandro.
Hu-Van Wright and Bole teamed with Julian Mackrel and Alexander Lewis to open the night session with a second-place finish in the 200 IM. Their NCAA A-qualifying time of 1:17.66 was only .11 behind Harvard's winning time, and it was a good indication of how tight this meet will likely be throughout the weekend.
Junior Sam Smiddy finished fourth in the 500 free in 4:20.04, while Hu-Van Wright took second in a thrilling 50 final in 19.63. Only .04 of a second separated him and Harvard's Paul O'Hara, who won the event in 19.59. Bole (fifth, 19.76) and Mackrel (8th, 20.13) were A finalists as well.
Junior Nathan Makarewicz had a strong opening day on the 1-meter board; he took third with 297.90 points, while sophomore Liam Fitzgerald took eighth with 262.60 points.
The championships will continue Friday with preliminaries at 11 am, and finals will begin again at 6 pm.
| TEAM SCORES | Points | |
| 1. | Harvard | 466 |
| 2. | Princeton | 437 |
| 3. | Penn | 340 |
| 4. | Yale | 235 |
| 5. | Cornell | 224.5 |
| 6. | Columbia | 218 |
| 7. | Brown | 191.5 |
| 8. | Dartmouth | 161 |