M. swimming stays perfect in league

Winter break was very hectic for Rob Orr, head coach of the men's swimming team. Not only did he and his family move across town, but his wife decided to get a new dog. Fortunately for him, however, the Tigers made his transition to the new year just a little easier by handily defeating Army Wednesday, 137-99, in West Point, N.Y.

For Princeton (5-0 overall, 3-0 Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League) – which brought just 24 swimmers to the meet – junior Lance Needham and sophomore Kevin Volz led the way, each winning two events.

"We were happy with the win," said Needham, who won the 400-yard individual medley and 200 butterfly in times of 4 minutes, 4.59 seconds and 1:55.80, respectively. "Coming off Christmas break, we weren't expecting great things, but I was pretty happy with my times overall."

In addition to Needham and Volz – who captured the 1,650 freestyle in 15:55.94 and the 500 free in 4:38.21 – sophomore Eric Carty-Fickes won the three-meter diving competition with a score of 255.98, and sophomore Chris Cunningham won the 200 free in 1:42.72. While the meet does not count toward Princeton's Ivy League record, the Tigers will face Army at the EISL championships in March.

Upcoming events

With just under a month until the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet Feb. 4-5 in Cambridge, Mass., at which Princeton will face the defending EISL champion Crimson, the Tigers are preparing for the heart of their season. The swimmers stayed on campus before break until Dec. 22, doing two workouts a day in addition to lifting weights. While at home, the swimmers were also expected to maintain their training schedules.

"A lot of people are at different places in their training," junior David Hamming said. "Some people need more rest, some people need less. I think it will take about a week of training for us all to get in sync."

To this point in the season, Princeton is right where it needs to be. After beginning the season with wins over Cornell and Penn, the Tigers swam well at the Penn State Invitational Dec. 3-5, coming from behind to defeat Brown in what was scored as a duel meet with the Bears. Since then, Princeton soundly defeated Villanova Dec. 10-11 and then Army Wednesday.

"We won't know until the dust settles down from lack of sleep, papers and exams how we're going to be [at the H-Y-Ps]," Orr said. "But on paper, currently everyone is on track."