Princeton Takes Big Al Title As Balva Leads Big Finish In The 200 Fly

Sunday, December 3

Princeton, N.J.

10:00 AM / 5:00 PM

Princeton University

Big Al Invitational

Princeton Takes Big Al Title As Balva Leads Big Finish In The 200 Fly

December 03, 2023 | Men's Swimming and Diving

Complete Big Al Invitational Results

The final day of the Big Al Invitational saw the Princeton men's swimming and diving team pull away from Penn State to take the team championship with 891.5 points to 817 for the Nittany Lions.

The big event of the day for Princeton was the 200 butterfly, where the Tigers had five of the first seven finishers, including four who reached the NCAA Championship provisional qualifying time. The winner was Arthur Balva, whose 1:43.48 was a half-second better than runner-up Vili Sivec of Cal State-Bakersfield. After that, the next three to touch the wall were Princeton swimmers Connor McKenna, Tyler Hong and Max Kreidl, all of whom bettered the B standard. Nicholas Lim finished seventh.

In all, Princeton picked up 79 points in the seven to 10 for Penn State. For a three-day meet whose final margin of victory was 74.5 points, the 200 fly was huge.

Princeton ended the day second in the 400 free relay with Mitchell Schott, Lucas Tudoras, Maximllian Hunger and Brett Freyeck. Schott finished third in the 100 free one day after winning the 200 free.

John Ehling, who won the 500 free Friday, was third in the 1,650 freestyle.

Also, in the USA Diving Winter Nationals 3-meter event, Aidan Wang finished 21st with a score of 284.50 and Luca Dassi took 39th with a score of 242.65.

The Princeton men are off until after the new year, with a meet at Notre Dame with the Fighting Irish and the Naval Academy Jan. 12-13.