Despite injuries, women's swimming beats Columbia

Wrapping up an impressive season of dual meet competition, women's swimming traveled to New York last Friday to take on Columbia in their last regularly scheduled dual meet of year.

Having beaten a very talented and highly-ranked Harvard team just a week beforehand, this weekend's meet against a weaker Lions squad seemed at first to be a bit of an anticlimax.

"From the numbers, Harvard was expected to beat us, but we really stepped up and won by a considerable amount," senior captain Katie Kuga said. "That was the defining moment in our season."

Despite the notable importance of Princeton's wins at H-Y-P's, however, the Tigers' match-up against Columbia was anything but trivial. An excited Princeton team went into this weekend knowing that to capture a win in this meet would secure the Tigers' sixth consecutive undefeated season in regular Ivy League competition.

"Winning all the dual-meets of the Ivy season really made a huge difference," Kuga said. "We've had so many setbacks this year, and we wanted to show that we could get by those setbacks and still win the Ivy League."

With, in Kuga's words, "a lot of injuries this year and one of our best swimmers [Amy Jones] abroad," there was considerable worry that the Tigers would have difficulty maintaining their competitive edge.

Along with the importance of the Ivy winning streak, this past weekend also marked the last dual meet in which the senior members of the Princeton team will participate.

"At least for the seniors, this was a huge meet," Kuga said. "We really wanted this win."

Truth be told, however, Columbia was not a team to be taken lightly. While they may not have had the competitive reputation of the Crimson, they still have a decent record on the season (2-3 in Ivy League competition) and posed a definite threat for the Tigers.

"Columbia is a good team," Kuga said. "They have a lot of new swimmers. The meet was nerve-racking and very close."

In fact, the Lions took the lead early, winning the first four races of the meet. Even after Princeton rallied to win eight out of the nine final races, Columbia was still able to hold the Tigers to a closer margin than was Harvard, losing only by the score of 101-141.

Princeton was led by the efforts of junior Stephanie Hsiao and sophomore Sarah Schaffer, who each took two events repectively. Hsiao captured the 100-and 200-yard IM races, while Schaffer won the 100-yard back and 100-yard breast.

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With last weekend's win now comes a three week reprieve in which the Tigers will prepare for the Ivy League championships and a chance to win their fifth consecutive League title.

"We're the team that all the other teams will be gunning for," Kuga said.

And, of course, the team is always thinking about the ever-important NCAA championships that will be coming up in March.

Regardless of how the rest of the season goes, however, the Tigers have to be satisfied with their impressive series of recent victories, conspicuously marked by their continued dominance in the Ivy League.

"We did what we wanted to do," Kuga said. "Now we're just having fun as a team and getting excited for the Ivy League Championships."