Men's swimming stops lesser foes at Princeton Invite

Although it took a break from dual meets and EISL competition, men's swimming and diving had a long, busy and productive weekend. The team sent a group of competitors to the U.S. Open Thursday through Saturday and hosted the Princeton Invitational Saturday and Sunday.

"A lot of people, just before we get back to hard training, are able to use the meets leading up to the [winter] break to see where they are in relation to the rest of the team members, and some are striving to establish themselves for our Easterns team later down the road," head coach Rob Orr said.

"So the biggest thing is just getting competition in and racing instead of just training to train. We ideally are training to race, so we better race now and then."

At the Invitational, the swimmers blew their competition out of the water, finishing in first place with 1,021 points — almost double the score of second-place finisher Drexel (578 points).

The Tigers took first in 15 of the 17 men's events. They took the top four spots in three events, the top five in the 50-yard freestyle and the top six in the 100 butterfly. Junior Jesse Gage led the way in the 50 free with a time of 20.79 seconds, and junior Carl Hessler took the top spot in the 100 fly with 50.89.

But such success could have been predicted, given that opponents Drexel, Bucknell, and Rider have not recently had swimming programs on the level of Princeton's.

"The main thing was just to get some swims in and get some races in," Orr said.

Since none of the opponents posed much of a threat, the team could afford to mix up the roster a bit, with some swimmers participating in off events. Also, swimmers that had competed in the U.S. Open only participated in one event each at the Invite.

But when the swimmers did compete in their regular events, they demonstrated that they really are in a different league than their non-EISL competitors. Senior Kevin Volz, who took first in the 500 free (4:33.62), swam by himself for most of the race. Junior teammate Eric Foster was a distant second (4:48.91), and Volz nearly lapped the Bucknell competitor in his heat.

1-2-3-4 finishes were led by sophomore Juan Valdivieso in the 200 free (1:43.81), senior Matt Keay in the 200 individual medley (1:55.64) and Hessler in the 100 free (46.63).

Junior Garth Fealey had a first-place finish in the 100 breast (55.16), but had a far more notable accomplishment last Thursday at the U.S. Open, a USA Swimming event which attracts hundreds of top swimmers, including some Olympians and record holders. Fealey finished second in the 100 breast (1:01.61) to world record holder Ed Moses, who finished in 1:00.26. (Moses's record time is 57.66.)

"That was a huge swim for him," Orr said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Also at the U.S. Open, Valdivieso turned in an eighth-place performance in the 200 fly (2:01.86), and Volz was 11th in the 1500 free (15:44.76) and 15th in the 400 free (3:59.20). The 400 free relay team - junior Jesse Gage, sophomore Mike Salerno, senior Nathan Rebuck, and freshman Justin Chiles - finished fifth (3:25.50), and Rebuck, Valdivieso, Volz, and Chiles, swimming the 800 free relay, finished seventh (7:38.98).

Men's diving was also successful this weekend, taking five of the top seven spots in both the one-meter and three-meter events against representatives from the Harvard diving team at the Princeton Invitational.

Freshman Kent DeMond qualified for the NCAA Zone A Championship with his first-place scores in 3-meter and platform (323.55 and 525.22, respectively).

The Tigers get back into dual-meet action this Saturday when they take on Army at West Point, N.Y.