Facing off against some of the nation's top competition, the men's and women's swimming and diving team's finished third and fourth, respectively, at the Big Al Invitational, held over the weekend at DeNunzio Pool.
The Invitational does not count towards any team's season record but was an opportunity for teams to showcase and hone their talents as they approach the heart of their regular seasons. While the swimmers stayed at home, the divers were competing at the Galbraith Diving Invitational, held by Rutgers.
The men's side of the swim meet featured American, Brown, Columbia, Pittsburgh, Princeton, Rutgers, No. 14 Tennessee and No. 18 Virginia. The women's draw saw American, Brown, Pittsburgh, Princeton, No. 22 Rutgers and No. 20 Virginia square off.
Princeton's performance was admirable over the weekend against the difficult competition that came to town, with its showing highlighted by a few notable individual performances. While the Orange and Black finished near the top of the team standings, Virginia handily won both team meets.
Though the meet lasted for three days, the Tigers' found their place in the pecking order within the first day, as neither the men nor women improved after Friday's performance.
During the first day of the meet, Princeton found itself lingering in the middle of the pack, generally having its top finisher placing between fourth and fifth — aside from Olympic-hopeful freshman Alicia Aemisegger, who has won every meet since enrolling at Princeton and is on track to break more school records than one can count. Even for Aemisegger, however, this was a challenging weekend. In contrast to her domination of every other event this season, she won by two and three second margins instead of the eight or 10 second margins she displayed earlier in the season.
Sophomore Robert Griest placed third in the men's 500-yard freestyle, the team's highest finish of the day.
With the top teams already 100 points ahead of the Tigers, the men would spend day two protecting their third place, while the women attempted to claw back into the meet.
Saturday's performances, which were stronger across the board than Friday's, did not do much to improve the teams' standings. Senior Kelly Hannigan took an extremely close third place in the 100-yard breaststroke and swam on the relay team which took third in the 800-yard freestyle and fourth in the 200-yard medley. Seniors Tim Ruse and Meir Hasbani gave the best performances for the men, taking second and third, respectively, in the 400-yard IM.
After the second day, the Tiger women had let the teams above them gain more ground — they were 72 points behind third place Pittsburgh and lagging Virginia by 223. The men had improved their lead over Pittsburugh to 54, but Virginia had two times as many points as Princeton.
On the final day of the meet Aemisegger was the only Tiger victor on either squad — and the leading teams gained more ground on Princeton. The women had 590.5 points while winner Virginia had 928; the men had 474 points and the Claviers had 1029 points.
While the swimmers at Old Nassau swam well against their top-25 opponents, the divers faired even better at Rutgers. Stuart Malcolm — who qualified for the NCAA Zone championships last season — won the platform, placed fourth in the 1-meter and eighth in the 2-meter. The women's team, which also performed well, was led by sophomore Katie Giarra, who took third in both the 1- and 3-meter events.
This Sunday, the men head south to face Navy while the women are out of the water until hosting James Madison following winter break.
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