Two to compete for national accolades

A dynamic duo will travel to Minnesota this week to represent Princeton at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. While the majority of the Tigers were packing away their kickboards, parkas and pull-buoys, senior Michelle DeMond and freshman Alicia Aemisegger continued to train after qualifying for the prestigious meet in Minnesota.

Though the women's swim team had one of its best years in recent memory, with a myriad of swimmers claiming individual titles at the recent Ivy League Championships, Aemisegger was the sole NCAA qualifier — an achievement that was no surprise. At her first collegiate meet ever, Aemisegger won six individual events in two days, setting school records in the 200 free, 200 fly and 200 breaststroke. Throughout the season, Aemisegger continued to capture the spotlight. At the recent Ivy League Championships, Aemisegger captured three event titles, setting a meet record in the 500 free, replacing her own Ivy record in the 1000 free and helping senior Kelly Hannigan, sophomore Justina DiFazio and junior Lisa Hamming shatter the Ivy record in the 800 free relay, earning her the Ivy League Championships Swimmer of the Meet title.

Fellow teammate DeMond earned her spot to compete this past weekend at the Zone "A" Diving Meet at Rutgers. After facing injuries and illness over the past several years, DeMond's senior-year qualification will wrap up her diving career at Princeton at its height.

"The most exciting part about competing at NCAA is just to say that I was there, and I was an NCAA qualifier," DeMond said. "The past three years have been tough trying to get my dives back to the level they were in high school because of an injury or being sick, so I'm just thrilled to have made it my senior year."

Finishing her Princeton career with this qualification is certainly a commendable achievement. While swimmers qualify for the championships through set times and national rankings, divers compete at one of the five zone meets across the country. Demond successfully secured her position after facing dozens of divers, competing at a tiring three-day meet, and winning the platform dive on the final day of competition. She was one of the four female divers from Zone "A" to qualify for the national meet.

Together, DeMond and Aemisegger will represent the Tigers. While DeMond will compete in the platform event, Aemisegger will compete in the 500 free, the 400 IM and the 200 breast. She enters the meet with top-10 rankings in two of her three individual events. Aemisegger enters with the ninth-fastest and 16th-fastest times in the 500 free and 200 breast, respectively. Most impressively, her 400 IM mark of 4 minutes, 9.27 seconds is the second-fastest seed time in the nation.

The meet will take place at the Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis over the course of three days.

While Princeton will not compete for the national team title, these two individuals may possibly return with national accolades of their own.