Swimming dominates Princeton Invitational

Three years ago senior Stephanie Hsiao and junior Chrissy Macaulay were just freshmen, but the two standout swimmers immediately contributed to the history of the Princeton swimming and diving team when they swam on the record-breaking 200-yard freestyle relay. In the first event of the Princeton Invitational on Friday night, Hsiao and Macaulay — who took last year off to train for the Canadian Olympic trials — teamed up with Lisa Hamming, the team's current freshman star, and sophomore Sobenna George to break the record again, shaving three-tenths of a second off the old record, despite being "unshaved."

"It was in the back of our minds; we knew we could do it," Hsiao said.

It was a stellar start to a golden weekend as both the men's and women's swim teams captured first place at their own invitational, which took place over three days, with each day including morning preliminaries and evening finals. Both teams won by a large margin over second-place Rutgers, providing some redemption for the women, who lost to the Rutgers team in a recent dual meet.

Senior Justin Chiles starred for the men as he anchored their winning 200 free relay to start the meet. Sophomore Ryan Becker and juniors Will Reinhardt and Alan Fishman swam the other relay legs.

"Some of the team rested up for this meet, and we swam really well," Fishman said. "We showed our depth, which bodes well for the conference meet."

Chiles had a hand in four first-place finishes and finished no worse than third in his seven-swim outing. Individually, he won the 500 free and 200 free, and placed second in the 100 free and third in the 50 free (to two teammates).

"It's a testament to his versatility and ability that he's able to do all four well," Fishman said. "He swam a really fast 500, then turned around 20 minutes later and swam the 50."

Chiles also anchored the winning 800 free relay, and his 400 free relay squad finished second — to another Princeton squad.

Domination and depth were themes for the men. They placed second through fourth in both the 200 and 400 individual medleys and swept the top two spots in the 1,650 free, 100 and 200 butterfly, and the 200 and 400 free relays. Sophomore Ryan Rimmele took the 200 fly in 1:48.84 for Princeton's final win of the meet.

"We don't necessarily have the star power of the past, but we have a depth that we haven't had before," Fishman said.

For the women's team, the members of the record-setting relay returned to the pool throughout the rest of the weekend to capture individual titles.

Macaulay won the 50 free, an event in which she holds the Princeton school record. Hsiao won both the 100 breaststroke and 100 free, after a runner-up finish to teammate Hamming in the 200 IM by just four-tenths of a second. Hamming and Hsiao swam side by side, and the finish could only be distinguished by the timing system.

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"It's great to have a freshman like Lisa [Hamming] on the team. If you get beat by anyone, you hope it's a teammate," said Hsiao, who swam a season-best time. "It's good because we push each other in practice."

Hamming also won the 400 IM, touching the wall over a second in front of sophomore teammate Kelly Hannigan. The versatile freshman also took third in the 200 breast and seventh in the 100 backstroke, scoring valuable points for the team.

"I enjoy swimming for them [teammates] just as much as myself," Hamming said. "It makes every race easier knowing that I have all of my teammates behind me."

Hsiao, who qualified for NCAAs in the 100 breast last year, was favored to win that event, but her victory in the 100 free, in a personal best of 50.20, was "completely unexpected."

"My coach just told me to go out in 24 and to swim as fast as I could," said Hsiao, who had never finished faster than 51 seconds in the event.

Later in the evening, Hsiao led off the 400 free relay and hit the wall at 50.04 seconds, a split faster than the 1986 record for the 100 free. Her teammates — Hamming, Hannigan and senior Amy Jones — swam fast enough to bring the team within 0.11 seconds of the school record set last spring.

Only greater things are to come, as it is still early in the season, and Hsiao expects that more relay records will fall before the season ends. If everyone keeps swimming well, there's even a chance that Hsiao will bring some friends to NCAAs.