Going into the third and final day of competition at this weekend's Eastern conference championship meet, men's swimming and diving trailed Harvard by 42.50 points. Harvard seemed poised to take its seventh straight Easterns title, and Princeton seemed locked into a steady track towards its seventh straight stint in second place.
But little by little, something unexpected began to happen. Slowly but surely, with each of the final seven events, the Tigers edged in on the Crimson just a little more, closing the gap to just four points after the 200-yard breaststroke.
And then, the positions on the scoreboard flipped: with junior Carl Hessler and sophomore Juan Valdivieso's one-two finish in the 200 butterfly, Princeton jumped 12 points ahead of Harvard, leading 1,378-1,366. Then freshman Kent DeMond's first-place 3-meter diving performance added eight points to the margin.
With one event left, the Tigers led the Crimson 1,458-1,438. The goal which had been the team's single focus since the first day of the season was now a realistic possibility. Only the 400 freestyle relay separated the Tigers from the coveted Easterns crown.
Two minutes, 57.44 seconds later, junior Jesse Gage, sophomore Mike Salerno, senior Nathan Rebuck, and junior Carl Hessler had won the event, set a new meet record, and met the "B" qualifying standard for the national NCAA meet.
But most importantly, they had clinched the championship title.
Princeton finished the meet in first place with 1,522 points to Harvard's 1,494. Over the three-day contest, the Tigers had taken first or second in 16 of the 21 events, set four meet records and one pool record, and met 16 NCAA "B" standards. In addition, junior Garth Fealey met the "A" standard in the 100 breaststroke.
But this victory, for the Tigers, was about far more than the sum of their points. It was even about more than the personal satisfaction that came with breaking Harvard's six year stranglehold on the Easterns title, although that was, of course, huge.
This victory was about giving something back — honoring the memory of their fallen teammate Matt Weiner '02, and living up to the example of their beloved coach, C. Rob Orr.
Weiner, a member of the swim team who would have been a senior this year, died unexpectedly from a heart attack his freshman year.
"Even though he hasn't physically been here, and even though we don't really address it that often, it's just understood that he's a part of the team, and the whole season was basically dedicated to him, which made the Easterns victory that much more special," sophomore Kevin Weiner – Matt's younger brother, and a member of the team – said.
"I think it was special for [his classmates] just to do that for Matt, a last gift for him. Especially at the end, when they announce the score, just having the members of '02 come up to me and say that we did it for him and they couldn't believe that we did it."
In addition to Matt Weiner's legacy, the Tigers were inspired by their "fearless leader," as Valdivieso calls Coach Orr, so much that they put his image and name on their team sweatshirts.
"He's such an inspiration to the whole team," Valdivieso said. "Everything we swam was dedicated to him."
However, Orr's fan base extends beyond his swimmers.
As the Tigers crept up on the Crimson a little more with each event, they were supported by a sizeable contingent of the crowd, including a number of swimming alumni who had been a part of Princeton's last Easterns title team in 1995. Indeed, although the meet was hosted at Harvard, "it felt like we were swimming at home," Valdivieso said.
These cheers weren't always exactly typical, however. At one point, the crowd, along with the team, was chanting not "Go Tigers," but "C. Rob Orr! C. Rob Orr!"
But Orr, always modest, would never claim the victory for himself, or even just for the team.
"When Rob addressed us after we won, he said that it wasn't just us — we didn't only win the meet," Weiner said.
"Everyone in the stands won the meet — and everyone up above."
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