Carl Hessler

It is difficult to choose only one performance from the many tremendous showings at this weekend's Harvard-Yale-Princeton swim meet and call it the best. Princeton swimmers on both the men's and women's teams broke school records and smashed their opponents.

Nevertheless, sophomore Carl Hessler outstripped the rest by bettering the existing school and pool records in the 200-yard butterfly by almost two seconds, an enormous margin in a race that usually lasts just under two minutes. The second-place finisher, Kyle Egan of Harvard, swam well enough to break the existing pool record, but could only manage to come within several body lengths of Hessler.

The significance of Hessler's swim lies in holding off his Crimson pursuers. He spearheaded the Tigers' effort to defeat Harvard, whom Princeton had not beaten since 1998. Though the women's team also swept Harvard and Yale, their win was expected. The men's team needed unusually strong performances to contend.

Hessler's swim was without question unusual — his time of 1:45.22 is the fastest in the nation this year. Further boosting the Tigers' cause, Hessler took second place in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:37.86 and the 500 freestyle in 4:23.70. Hessler was placed in the second-to-last heat for that event, meaning that he was not supposed to compete with the fastest swimmers in the final heat.

For this weekend, however, there was no better swimmer than Carl Hessler.