Men's swimming aims to break Harvard's stranglehold on Easterns

"Obey. C. Rob Orr has a posse."

This is the message men's swimming and diving wants to send to its

Easterns foes — all of the Ivy schools, plus Army and Navy — this weekend at the conference championships which began yesterday and run through Saturday.

Under the tutelage of head coach Orr, the Tigers have been preparing for this weekend from the very first day of the season. As a team, their entire focus has been trained not on daily practice or conference dual meets, but always on this one goal: coming out on top of Harvard. Quite simply, the Tigers are tired of second place: either Princeton or Harvard has won the Easterns title ever year since 1973, but the Crimson have taken the last six and nine of the last ten.

Of course, just wanting to win is not enough. Every team wants to win. And especially in swimming, there is little room for error. Having heart is great, but if you don't touch the wall first, it doesn't mean a thing.

"Harvard has won the last six or so years, why would they want to give up that reign?" junior Jamie Leahy said. "We are the underdog and we have to make it happen."

Luckily for the Tigers, Princeton enters the meet with a lot more than just desire: it also has a top-notch corps of relay teams and sprinters, and strong representation in just about every other event.

"Our relays are the strongest they've ever been," Leahy said. "Aside from relays, we are well-rounded in all the events. We are a well-rounded team and our potential is infinite."

It's true that Harvard handily defeated Princeton at HYP's in February, but that was a very different Princeton team. The Tigers' top swimmers were not fully rested and shaved for that meet, and expected the Crimson to win. In contrast, the twenty Princeton swimmers and divers competing at Easterns are fully tapered, fully shaved, and fully determined.

"All I can really say is we're capable of making a run for it," Orr said.

"We'll just see how everything pans out once we get up there, but [our swimmers] definitely have the talent, they've put in the work and time and energy this year, and we'll just see how it pans out."

Princeton got off to a good start yesterday, winning both the first and last events of the day: the 200-yard freestyle relay (one minute, 20.29 seconds) and the 400 medley relay (3:15.03, a new meet record). Although the Tigers trail the Crimson by 44 points going into Friday's competition, one or two great swims could easily narrow that gap in a high-scoring championship meet.

"Last year wasn't our time to win Easterns," Leahy said. "This year, however, this year is the year. This is the year the Tigers broke free."

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If Princeton keeps its momentum the next two days, Leahy's prophesy could become reality. Maybe this will be the year the Tigers break out of second place.