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Men’s, women’s teams excel at Penn Invitational

The Princeton swimming and diving teams made a splash this weekend at the Penn State Invitational at University Park, squaring off against Pennsylvania State University and the University of Connecticut.

The men’s team finished second at 1,156.5 points, just behind host Penn State at 1,189.5 points and ahead of third-place Connecticut at 681 points. Individual Tigers turned out dominant performances in the pool across the board. The men’s team clinched nine individual titles and swept all four relay events (the 200-yard medley relay, 400-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay). Leading the way for the Tigers was senior En-Wei Hu-Van Wright, who churned his way to three wins in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Hu-Van Wright also swam in all four winning Princeton relays. Freshman Cole Buese had an outstanding performance as well, nabbing three impressive individual wins in the 400-yard individual medley, 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard butterfly. The victory in the 400-yard individual medley was especially noteworthy, as Buese and sophomore Samuel Smiddy would make the race a thoroughly Princeton victory, going 1-2. Other Tigers winning individual titles include sophomore Ben Schafer, winning the 100-yard butterfly and placing second in the 50-yard freestyle, and senior Bryon Sanborn, who swept the breaststroke individuals. Junior diver Nathan Macarewicz earned sixth place in the 3-meter and seventh in the 1-meter.

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The women’s team also finished second to Penn State, scoring 993 points to the Nittany Lions’ 1,094. Freshman Lindsay Swartz swam to an impressive first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Freshman Monica McGrath had top 3 finishes in all three distance events, placing second in the 200-yard freestyle and third in both the 500-yard online casino freestyle and one mile. Other Princeton swimmers claiming top finishes included senior Nikki Larson, placing second in the 100-yard freestyle, third in the 100-yard butterfly and fifth in the 50-yard freestyle, senior Beverly Nguyen, placing second in the 200-yard butterfly and fifth in the 400-yard individual medley, senior Liz McDonald, placing third in the 200-yard butterfly and fourth in the 100-yard butterfly, and sophomore Madelyn Veith, placing third in the 100-yard freestyle.

Many members of both the men’s and women’s team did not actually participate in the PSU invitational: seven members of the women’s team and four on the men’s team raced in the Minnesota Grand Prix, alongside the most elite swimmers in the nation (among them Michael Phelps, Missy Franklin and 19-year-old prodigy Katie Ledecky). Sophomore Corey Okubo turned out a particularly stellar performance, finishing third in the 400-yard individual medley and fifth in the 200-yard butterfly in one of the strongest fields nationally.

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