Diving Sweep, Relay Depth Help Princeton To Thrilling Sweep Of Penn, Cornell

Friday, November 17

Philadelphia, Pa.

3:00 PM

Princeton University

157

143

Penn

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

Diving Sweep, Relay Depth Help Princeton To Thrilling Sweep Of Penn, Cornell

November 17, 2017 | Men's Swimming and Diving

COMPLETE RESULTS

Impressive diving, timely wins and a brilliant final set of 400 free relays helped the Princeton men's swimming & diving team open its 2017-18 Ivy League season with a thrilling sweep of both Cornell and Penn at Sheerr Pool in Philadelphia. The Tigers posted a decisive 259.5-40.5 win over Cornell, but their 157-143 win over Penn wasn't determined until the final event of the afternoon.

Princeton was able to bookend the meet with wins, thanks to a strong early diving effort from freshman Colten Young. Coming off his runner-up finishes at the Virginia Invitational last weekend, Young opened the meet by winning the 3-meter diving event with 331.90 points, and he followed up later by winning the 1-meter event with 310.50 points. Princeton added important points with third-place finishes by Charlie Minns (3m, 311.30; 1m, 290.80) in both events as well.

Princeton opened the swimming events with a 2-3 finish in the 200 medley relay, and then freshman Levy Nathan continued the strong early part of his career by winning the 500 free in 9:19.93. Princeton went second in both the 200 free (Murphy McQuet, 1:39.76) and 100 back (Alex Lewis, 49.40), and then another Tiger freshman got Princeton back in the win column; Corey Lau won the 100 breast in 55.96, while sophomore teammate Tyler Lin took second in 56.31.

Corey Okubo and Cole Buese tied for second in the 200 fly (1:47.53), and Ben Schafer added a runner-up finish in the 50 free in 20.73. After a third-place finish by Lewis in the 100 free (45.51), Buese and Wade O'Brien provided big points in the 200 back with a 1-2 finish. Buese claimed the win in 1:47.72, while O'Brien took second in 1:48.72.

Lin had his second runner-up finish of the afternoon by going 2:03.37 in the 200 breast, and Sam Tarter took second in the 500 free in 4:33.47.

Senior tri-captain Ben Schafer scored a much-needed win in the 100 fly (48.67), while fellow captain Zach Buerger added a third-place finish in 49.14. Okubo's 1:50.58 in the 200 IM was enough for third, which set up the critical 400 free relay.

Princeton's depth proved to be decisive, as the Tigers went 1-3-4 to clinch the sweep. Lewis, McQuet, Schafer and Christian Feiler went 3:00.40 to top Penn by more than 1.3 seconds, while Joshua Brown, Buerger, Jon Spires, and Buese took third in 3:05.07.

The sweep earned veteran head coach Rob Orr his 318^th victory, tying him for fourth-most in NCAA men's swimming history with longtime USC head coach Peter Daland, who led the 1972 US Olympic team that included seven-time gold medal winner Mark Spitz.

Princeton will be off for Thanksgiving week, but the Tigers will make their home debut the following weekend for the annual Big Al Open, a three-day event that begins Friday, Dec. 1. That meet will be streamed live on the Ivy League Network.