With the first place in the Eastern Championship out of reach by the time of the 400-meter free relay — the final event of this weekend — the Princeton men's swimming and diving team and its legion of fans were anything but defeated as the meet came to its end.
The Tigers and their fans, cheering at the top of their lungs, had DeNunzio louder than at any point this weekend as they watched the final swimmer — senior captain Jamie Holder — power into the wall ahead of the favored Harvard relay, giving Princeton its first victory in that event at Easterns since 1980.
"It was just amazing. No one expected us to win that relay," said senior captain Dan Russell — the second leg of the winning relay.
"It was a perfect way to cap off the weekend."
Despite losing to Harvard for the fifth consecutive year and consequently settling for runner-up status once again, Princeton had a plethora of impressive swims and some incredible individual performances — including three school-record swims — that made the Tigers' weekend quite an accomplishment.
"Individually, some of us swam incredible, but as a whole, we swam really well too," Russell said. "I don't know anyone who felt they had a bad meet."
Coming in, the Tigers knew that Harvard was incredibly deep in the distance freestyle events and therefore would need some big points in these events. Junior Kevin Volz made an attack on the jugular by claiming first in prelims of the 500 freestyle with a time of 4 minutes, 26.25 seconds and surprising all those he was competing against and even himself.
However, in the finals, the four Harvard finalists in the event came out ready to swim and Volz — who was only a little off his morning time — finished fifth.
Tunnel vision
Not fazed by this finish, Volz went on to his best performance Friday when he finished the 1000 free with a time of 9:06.34. The time earned him third place — behind two Harvard swimmers — but more importantly, a school record.
School records didn't end there, however, as later that day, freshman phenom Jesse Gage had arguably the best swim of any Tiger at the meet. Gage finished first in the 100 fly with an incredible time of 47.84. That time was not only a school record, but also a pool record for DeNunzio and an Easterns meet record. Complemented by a close second-place finish in the 50 free and a respectable 10th place result in the 100 free, Princeton's team captains had nothing but praise for the rising star.
Sophomore Chris Cunningham created a stir Saturday with a record-setting swim of his own in the 200 back with a time of 146.79. Though he finished second, it was the perfect end to Cunningham's weekend, which included a third-place finish in the 200 individual medley Thursday and a victorious swim of 1:38.07 in the 200 free. Other notables included senior diver Andy Shyong's second-place finishes in the one and three-meter diving events and the first-place and second-place showings of junior Matt Harrigan, in the 200 breast and 400 IM, respectively.
Deep end
Though the Tigers swam as well as they had hoped, in the end, they just could not overcome Harvard's deep bench of swimmers.
But as that final race began, none of the Princeton swimmers were thinking of the loss that would become official after the event ended. The Tigers and their senior class wanted just one last chance to show Harvard why Princeton is its main rival and how from year to year, the storyline is always subject to change.
"Our freshman class is definitely outstanding and we have some great recruits coming in," Volz said.
"We just hope to keep improving and can't wait to make a run again next year."
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