Kenyon, Navy next up for men's swimming after success at H-Y-Ps

After an invigorating win last weekend at the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton competition, the men's swimming and diving team (6-1 overall, 6-0 EISL) will stay home for the weekend while Kenyon and Navy make appearances at DeNunzio Pool.

Starting Friday night, the Tigers take on the Kenyon Lords. Kenyon has won 24 straight NCAA Division III titles and looks to bring its past successes when the team challenges the powerhouse of the Ivy League. Boasting a dual meet record of 7-3, Kenyon will offer some fast races for the Princeton swimmers.

"Kenyon will be a real challenge for us on Friday," senior captain Jeff Yellin said.

The Kenyon squad will only bring 13 swimmers to Princeton from Ohio, but these swimmers will be motivated. Each one will be trying to post NCAA-qualifying times. The intensity expected from the Lords is fuel for Princeton to take this meet seriously and prove to yet another team that the "house rules."

After the meet against Kenyon on Friday, a night of rest and recuperation should be enough for Princeton to go head-to-head with Navy on Saturday afternoon. DeNunzio will host this second meet of the weekend against Navy as its last meet before hosting the Eastern Intercollegiate Swim League championships early next month.

Navy brings its 8-7 record to Princeton having defeated several smaller schools. The Midshipmen fell to all their Ivy League competitors, however, losing to Harvard, Yale, Brown, Penn, Dartmouth and Cornell. The Tigers have climbed over all these teams on their way up. The Navy meet will be senior day for Princeton's class of '04.

As usual, the hard work and grueling training that the men's swimming and diving teams have done all season will be their biggest strengths against the visiting teams.

It is no secret that Princeton's toughness has brought many victories before, including the most recent meet against Harvard and Yale. The Princeton swimmers expected competitive racing from the visiting teams, and the Tigers rose to the occasion. In some cases, races that could have gone either way resulted in important victories for Princeton. H-Y-Ps are historically decided by several close races.

Back-and-forth battles from all teams made this year's H-Y-Ps especially exciting, as the heroes of the day took on the "no guarantee" challenge. Senior Meir Hasbani contributed three outstanding wins, along with junior Thorn Baccich, junior Evan Delaney and sophomore Will Reinhardt. The Tigers proved to every spectator and swimmer at DeNunzio that Princeton swimmers have the talent and the guts to perform in the clutch.

"Harvard is always a tough team," Yellin said. "We expected them to perform as well as they did. I think our win is a testament to how we swam, not to how they swam, because they swam very well."

With H-Y-Ps behind them, and only one loss all season to Pittsburgh, the Tigers look to continue their successes, and assert their dominance over Kenyon and Navy this weekend.