Midshipmen eke out close victory over Tigers

The men's swimming team knew Sunday's meet with Navy would be a challenge. Even after Princeton's laudable performance at the Big Al Invite the weekend before, where the Tigers faced No. 14 Tennessee and No. 18 Virginia, two of the nation's top swimming programs, the Midshipmen would prove to be one of its toughest opponents thus far.

Coming directly from the meet against Army, one of the most critical meets of the season, the Midshipmen (11-0), recently rested and shaved, extended their momentum from the previous weekend to barely edge out the Tigers, 165-135, on Sunday.

The opening relay seemed to set the pace for the rest of the meet. In an exciting race, Princeton (3-3) lost the 200m medley relay to Navy's A squad by less a second. Even though there were numerous individual highlights, the Tigers repeatedly found themselves in head-to-head sprints, with Navy flicking the wall barely a moment ahead in each race.

"We expected Navy to be a very formidable competitor, considering they did a full rest and shave for their meet against Army last weekend," senior Dave Ashley said. "We knew they would be relatively fresh from that competition, and they have a very good team to start with, which is highlighted by a good freshman class."

Despite the Midshipmen's strength, Princeton successfully stole the spotlight in several events. Sophomore Rob Griest proved to be the star, winning two individual events Sunday.

Griest performed the most memorable swim of the afternoon directly after the opening relay. Not only did he claim first place in the 800m freestyle by almost 12 seconds, but he also led a Princeton pack that dominated the event, with Ashley, junior Stan Buncher and sophomore Tyler Gutsche finishing third, fourth and fifth respectively. Later in the afternoon, Griest would return to dominate the 400m freestyle, winning by a wide margin of over seven seconds.

Though the Midshipmen rebounded and captured the following three events, 2006 All-American senior Meir Hasbani revived the Tigers' spirits in the 200m butterfly, taking first place. Sophomore Dan Eckel and senior Ryan Rimmele followed closely to claim second and fourth, respectively.

Sophomore Mike Carter defeated Navy's Christopher Jenkins in perhaps the closest race of the afternoon. Ahead by only .09 seconds after the 50-split, Carter held off Jenkins in a head-to-head sprint toward the wall, claiming the first-place finish in the 100m freestyle at 52.31, a margin of only .05 seconds. Both sophomore Will Schaffer and freshman Jon Hartmann finished within a second of Carter, claiming third and fourth at 52.55 and 53.13 seconds.

But it was toward the end of the meet that Princeton truly shined, as sophomore Doug Lennox echoed Griest's stunning earlier performance in his 100m butterfly. Lennox held a strong lead at the 50-split and finished more than a second ahead of the remaining competition. He not only led a pack of Tigers to finish third, fourth and fifth, but also set a new pool record in the event at 55.09.

In the thrilling closing 400m freestyle race, the Tigers came from behind to win the last event over Navy by nearly four seconds.

Though the Tigers' several strong performances were unable to overcome Navy, Princeton remains confident about its next encounter with the Midshipmen at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) championships.

"For dual meets, the entire competition is essentially decided by who wins the most events because first place is awarded so many more points than second, third, fourth and fifth," Ashley said. "We have been known for several years as having an extremely deep squad, which can be noted by the fact that we won EISL last year without winning a single event. That being said, the composition of our team is less conducive to winning dual meets this year, and ... Navy had some studs who really pulled through and won enough events to keep us at bay."

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Despite the close loss, the Tigers remain in good spirits, viewing this past weekend as a checkpoint to motivate the athletes to train harder, increase the yardage and prepare for the following Conference meets.

"This meet serves as an opportunity for us to realize that we need to step it up for EISL championships," senior Mike Zee said. "It'll just be a matter of pounding out the yardage and having better practices and meets until then. Our depth gives us the advantage at a championship meet because of the different scoring method compared to a duel meet, yet we still have work to do."

And with the next five to six weeks of intense training, the team hopes to fire back with newfound motivation and spirit after the break. With a string of home meets at DeNunzio, Princeton is eager to defend the pool against Columbia, Yale and Harvard, which would extend its perfect record for dual meets at DeNunzio.