Led by seniors, m. swimming looks for another Easterns crown

Last year, men's swimming and diving won first place at Easterns, finally knocking Harvard out of first place after playing bridesmaid to the Crimson for seven years. The conference title had been at the forefront of the team's objectives all season, and along the way the Tigers suffered an emotional loss to both Harvard and Yale in New Haven, Conn., at the annual H-Y-P meet.

This year, the challenge for the Tigers will be both repeating and building upon last season's successes — winning Easterns again, qualifying more swimmers for NCAAs, and avenging last year's H-Y-P loss — especially the one-point defeat by the Elis.

"Those are kind of the three magic wand wish list items we'd like to strive to accomplish," head coach C. Rob Orr said.

With one of the most talented senior classes in Princeton swimming history, the Tigers have the ability and the leadership to achieve their goals. And they've gotten off to a good start by, as usual, making short work of their first three Ivy foes over the weekend.

"Not knowing how recruiting's going — well, knowing how recruiting's going — we better enjoy what we've got now," Orr said. "There are no guarantees that this will continue."

Five of the team's seniors — freestyler and butterflyer Carl Hessler, sprinters Jesse Gage and Jamie Leahy, breaststroker Garth Fealey and backstroker Pat Donohue – together hold eight school records. Last year, members of the class of '03 contributed 666 points to Princeton's total at Easterns – which would have placed them sixth out of ten if they had been a team.

The Tigers have ample younger talent, as well, including junior Juan Valdivieso at distance free, sophomore Evan DeLaney at breaststroke, junior Michael Sullivan and sophomore Kent DeMond of the diving corps.

Having lost only three from last year's Easterns roster, the team is bolstered by the addition of ten freshmen to its ranks, including Brian Shue at distance and butterfly and sprinters Will Reinhardt and John Stover, who also plays water polo for Princeton.

But with the combined talents of Hessler, Gage, and Leahy, the team's primary strengths are undeniably sprint freestyle and butterfly, especially relays. Together with their relay teammates, these swimmers hold three of five relay school records, and swept four of five relay events at last year's Easterns.

The team did lose Nathan Rebuck '02 and Mike Salerno '02 of its freestyle relays, but younger swimmers should fill the gaps.

The Tigers also have a strong corps of breaststrokers, led by Fealey and DeLaney, who went one-two in both the 100-yard and 200-yard events at Easterns last year, with Fealey setting a meet and school record in the 100.

With talented backstrokers, medley swimmers, and divers rounding out their roster, the Tigers' only glaring hole going into this season is at distance free. School record holder Kevin Volz '02, who came in third at Easterns, has left some big flip-flops to fill. But Valdivieso has shown prowess in this area for the past two years, and won the 1000-yard and 500-yard events against Penn and Cornell.

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The Tigers got off to a good start this weekend, handily defeating their first three opponents. Princeton outswam Penn, 168-75, and Cornell, 151-92, in a double-dual meet last Friday, and then Brown, 210-83, on Sunday, sweeping several events in both meets and qualifying two divers for the NCAA zone championship.

But racking up regular season dual meet wins is never difficult for the Tigers, aside from H-Y-P's. The hard stuff – H-Y-P's and Easterns – comes later in the year.

If Princeton can capitalize on the talent of its senior standouts as well as the depth of its younger talent, 2002-2003 could once again be the year of the Tigers.