Men's swimming beats Columbia and Navy in final dual meets of season

Men's swimming and diving wrapped up its dual meet schedule convincingly last weekend with back-to-back wins over Columbia and Navy.

Princeton traveled to Columbia Friday, Feb. 8, where they took 13 of 16 events to beat the Lions 179-116. The Tigers displayed their depth by sweeping both the 1000-yard freestyle, led by senior Kevin Volz who finished in 9 minutes, 19.81 seconds, and the 200 backstroke, led by sophomore Hallett Johnson (1:52.09).

The next day Princeton hosted Navy, winning 174-111. Once again, the Tigers showed their depth as a team, taking first in all but three swimming events, including all of the individual freestyle contests. Volz, in the final home meet of his Princeton career, took first in the 1,650 free, and junior Jesse Gage swam to first in both the 50 and the 100.

Although the Tigers had little difficulty handling either the Lions or the Midshipmen, no meet can be discounted. When it doesn't have to worry too much about beating its opponent, Princeton is able to juggle its lineup, ensuring that swimmers remain fresh and in top form.

"Every meet's a competitive meet — you always try to get something out of it," Orr said.

"We're fortunate enough to be deep enough that we can alter our lineup a little bit so people aren't locked into their best events each and every meet. People get stale by having to swim the same thing every single time."

These last two victories brought the Tigers' record for the season to 7-2. Most teams would be quite happy with such numbers, but for a team that often goes undefeated, those two pesky losses are disappointing — especially having come all at once, to bitter Easterns rivals Harvard and Yale, at the Feb. 1-2 HYP meet.

Referring to that weekend as "the New Haven fiasco," Orr gave an overview of the dual meet season: "We didn't achieve everything that we had hoped to, and definitely emotionally it was disheartening to lose the HYP meet."

But as the team turns its focus to what is both its steepest and most anticipated challenge — the Eastern conference championship meet, which kicks off at Harvard two weeks from tomorrow — Orr remains optimistic about the team's chances.

Princeton will be represented by 21 athletes at Easterns: 17 swimmers, three divers, and one alternate. Although Harvard has won this meet the past six years, Princeton has always been right behind them in second place.

Throughout the season, the Tigers have consistently listed their number one goal as dethroning the Crimson once and for all.

With the regular season behind them, the team can now focus wholheartedly on achieving that goal. But in a technical sport like swimming, in which underdogs rarely pull off big upsets, a team has little chance of competing if it isn't well-prepared.

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With most of the hard work of the season behind them, the Tigers have to hope that their combination of physical training and mental devotion to a goal will pay off.

"We're just kind of fine tuning now," Orr said. "As my assistant coach Marc Benvenuti always says, the hay is in the barn and there's nothing more we can put in it."