Army last up for men's swimming

The men's swimming team closes its regular season today when they swim their final dual meet against Army. The Tigers head to West Point, N.Y. to face the Black Knights in their last meet before Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships (Easterns) on March 4.

The Tigers are going steady with an 8-1 dual-meet record and plan to continue this victory streak against Army, who is now only 5-7 in dual meets.

While Princeton has knocked down every Ivy League swim team in its path, Army has fallen to every one of them, most recently a rough weekend at Penn. Army poses little threat to the Tigers, who will most likely spread their reign over the Knights as well.

Army is a young team, and at this point in the season they are being led by freshmen swimmers. Princeton's depth and experience will come into play as it races tonight against Army.

Despite its expected weakness in the pool, Army has shown strength on the boards thus far. The Knights' leading diver, sophomore Doug Klein, has won 19 out of the 22 events in which he has competed. Even with this impressive record, the Princeton divers are hot after their meet against Kenyon, where they claimed top three spots in both the three-meter and one-meter events.

After tonight's race, the swimmers take the rest of February off from racing and pack in their last practices at DeNunzio Pool. Once March comes around, however, the calm Princeton training pool will transform as the craziness of Easterns move in.

Starting the first weekend of March and pushing through until the end of the month, Princeton will get in its share of racing.

As the 2003-2004 swimming season winds down, the Princeton Tigers are just getting started. With an Ivy League Championship to claim and Easterns title to defend, the excitement of raw competitive racing surfaces now in the season. As always, Harvard is the team that the Tigers will seek to avenge. However, Princeton has proved time and again this season, that no team is tougher than the Tigers.

With a little more than a month left for the class of 2007 swimmers, this is when the long hours at DeNunzio and unparalleled dedication to the swim team will lead Princeton to a victorious end.