At last weekend's Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet in Cambridge, Mass., it really didn't take the full two days to figure out the best team in the pool. In fact, it barely took two events, as the women's swimming team got off to a quick start and rolled to an easy victory in the annual swim meet with Princeton's biggest rivals.
The Tigers won six of nine events Friday then cruised Saturday to blow out Harvard, 199-120, and Yale, 217-102, extending their dual-meet winning streak to 40.
A fast start: the first day
The squad jumped out to the early lead on the first day when seniors Michelle Nielson, Molly Seto, Chrissy Holland, and sophomore Chrissy Macaulay won the 200-yard medley relay.
Junior Sarah Frauman and freshmen Eileen Altenburger and Libby Engelmeier built on the early lead with a 1-2-3 finish in the 1000-yard individual medley in which Frauman finished nearly 16 seconds in front of the fourth-place finisher.
The domination continued as Nielson won the 100-yard backstroke. In the fifth event, the 100-yard breaststroke, Holland just barely topped Harvard's Erica De Benedetto by 17-hundreths of a second to take first.
And in the 200-yard butterfly, the next event, Altenburger won by just one-tenth of a second over another Harvard swimmer, Kate Nadeau. Princeton swept the last swimming event — the 50-yard freestyle — with Macaulay, Seto, and senior Megan Donahue finishing in that order.
After day one, the Tigers had built a 119-50 advantage over Harvard and a 114-55 lead over Yale. In addition to six first-place finishes, the Tigers placed in almost every event, as they went 2-3 in the 200-yard freestyle, and freshman Whitney Ryan captured second in the 400-yard individual medley.
Only once, in the 1-meter diving event, was Princeton left off the medal stand. Senior Kristy Wilson did take third, however, in the three-meter event.
More of the same: day two
The team showed no let down on the second day of competition. Junior Claire Pearson won the second event of the day, the 200-yard backstroke, by 15-hundreths of a second over Harvard's Michelle Bright.
Holland, Ryan, and junior Lauren Rossi went 1-2-3 in the next event, the 200-yard breaststroke. Frauman took the 500-yard freestyle by nearly two seconds, and Seto blew away the competition by almost a second in the 100-yard butterfly as the Tigers crowded the medals podium en route to the win.
The Crimson defeated the Bulldogs, 194-124, giving them a second-place finish in the meet. Princeton will once again face its biggest rivals when the teams meet in Princeton Feb. 27-March 1 for the Ivy League Championship Meet.
The Tigers have now won an astonishing 40 dual meets in a row. On top of that, they are now sporting an unblemished 8-0 dual-meet record so far this season. The squad's dominance has been so complete that no current team member has suffered the indignity of a dual meet loss during her Princeton career.
Coming attractions
Princeton's domination of Harvard and Yale bodes well for the team for the remainder of the season. The Tigers face Columbia this week in the final meet of their regular season and then have several weeks off before the Ivy League Championships at the end of the month. Both meets will be held in the comfort of DeNunzio Pool.
With a strong performance in the pool at Harvard, a particularly difficult environment for opposing teams, the Tigers passed one of their toughest challenges of the season with flying colors. Princeton will be favored to capture the league crown, which would be their third consecutive title.
Defeating hated rivals Harvard and Yale never gets old for any Princeton athlete. The satisfaction of this weekend's H-Y-P meet rout will quickly disipate, however, if the Tigers can't repeat their performance at the Ivy League Championships.
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