The men's swimming and diving team survived many new tests this past weekend, including swimming at its first away conference meet and enduring its first three-day preliminaries-and-finals format swim meet. Though swimming at Brown's Smith Swim Center presented its own challenges due to an over-chlorinated pool, the Tigers (4-0 overall, 3-0 Ivy League) claimed victory at the Brown Invitational, outscoring the Bears by 546 points.
This weekend's meet was the only three-day meet of the season until the Ivy League Conference Championships in the beginning of March. Since the Tigers will be competing on the usual dual meet format — short one-day meets — for the remainder of the season until March's championships, this invitational served as Princeton's only opportunity to experience the intensity of competing for three days straight.
"This will be our most difficult meet from a fatigue standpoint," assistant coach James Holder said before the meet. "The rare three-day prelims and finals format will make it a tiring and challenging meet for our swimmers."
The athletes put up a plethora of outstanding performances in the face of adverse conditions, as the over-chlorinated environment created difficulty breathing, among other symptoms. The meet opened with Princeton taking a tight victory in the 200-yard individual medley. The Tigers finished at one minute, 24.03 seconds, less than one-tenth of a second faster than the Bears' 'A' relay — the difference of a hand length from the wall. Though it seemed the close victory would set a trend for the remainder of the weekend, as Princeton slowly adapted to swimming at the new pool, the Tigers began dominating not only Brown but also Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Freshman Robert Griest won the first individual event of the meet, the 500 freestyle, coming in a full seven seconds before second-place senior Brian Shue. Freshman Dan Eckel and sophomore Stan Buncher solidified Princeton's domination, finishing third and fourth, respectively. Though Princeton lost the first-place spot in the second event, the 200 IM, five Tigers finished in the top eight. This trend continued throughout the meet, with Princeton athletes taking the majority of the top eight.
Princeton closed Friday's competition by winning the 400 medley relay in 3:27.16, and claimed Saturday by opening the meet with a win in the 200 medley in 1:34.16.
Senior Meir Hasbani began the Saturday individual sessions by winning the 400 IM. His victory was followed by juniors Ryan McCabe, Seok Lee and Mike Zee, who won the 100 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke respectively.
The most impressive swim of the weekend, however, came from freshman Doug Lennox. Lennox, who had several strong swims throughout the weekend, captured the spotlight Saturday by earning an NCAA B-qualifying time of 48.55 in the 100 butterfly.
"Looking back, knowing that I was able to swim under the NCAA-B cut, I can only say that I am anxious," Lennox said. "Though the B-cut only means 'consideration,' after all this training, it is exciting for me to go to Brown and swim a lifetime best and realize that the A-cut is within reach."
Lennox then took first in the 100 freestyle on Sunday. Zee and Hasbani both took home another title Sunday, winning the 200 backstroke and 200 butterfly, respectively.
The divers' performance mirror-imaged that of the swimmers. Sophomore Stuart Malcom and junior Kent De Mond each earned a pair of NCAA qualifying scores in the three-meter and platform dives. Malcom and De Mond placed first and second in each of the diving events.
The Tigers' number of outstanding performances showed the athletes that they are in good shape on the national front.
"There is much potential in this team," Lennox said. "If we continue to work hard, we will have more than a handful of guys earning their place at the NCAA meet in March."
The team members will return to school Dec. 28 to train for the spring segment of the season. The next meet will be one of the most difficult competitions thus far. After two-plus weeks of intense workouts, Princeton takes on Virginia and Tennessee in Charlottesville, Va., on Jan. 14.
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