Princeton dominates at HYP meet

After a week of intense training, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams finished their weekends strongly, taking on Dartmouth, Harvard and Yale over Intersession.

The men’s and women’s teams easily defeated Dartmouth, 149-94 and 152-89, respectively, as they prepared for Harvard-Yale-Princeton, one of their biggest meets of the season.

The Princeton men (5-1 overall) started their HYP weekend Friday afternoon, as they traveled to New Haven, Conn., to face undefeated No. 22 Harvard (8-0) and a tough Yale (4-3) squad. The Tigers fell to the Crimson 139.5-213.5 and defeated the Bulldogs 213-140.

Princeton kicked off the meet with an impressive first-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay but only took two other first-place finishes during the weekend. What the team lacked in top finishes, however, it made up with an impressive display of depth.

Olympics-bound junior Doug Lennox was edged by Yale star Alex Righi in the 100-yard backstroke but clinched one of Princeton’s two individual first-place finishes with a 48.08-second clocking in the 100-yard butterfly.

Freshman Geoff Faux turned in a time of 20.11 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle, good for second place, losing only to Yale’s Righi.

The Tigers showed their depth in the 200-yard individual medley, taking five of the top eight spots. Junior Will Schaffer came in second to Harvard’s Geoff Rathgeber, a member of the U.S. national team and a top scorer at last year’s Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) Championships.

Schaffer dropped another tight decision to Rathgeber in the 400-yard IM but came back to win the 200-yard breaststroke in a barnburner against the Crimson’s Justin Davidson.

The push from Schaffer gave Princeton some momentum, as it took second and third in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The men’s divers also performed well, with sophomore Michael Papageorge and senior Stuart Malcolm posting high scores in both the three-meter and one-meter springboard.

While the men met tough opposition from Harvard, the Princeton women made waves of their own.
The Tigers easily defeated Harvard 210-107 and smacked Yale 237-65. Princeton (7-0) took first-place finishes in all 17 swimming events Saturday and Sunday, establishing a new standard for the Ivy League. Such a performance is fairly rare in swimming, especially against strong squads like the Crimson (6-1) and the Bulldogs (5-3).

The weekend was essentially perfect for the Tigers, who stepped up time and time again. While Princeton’s top performers continued their dominance, it was the rest of the team that was of particular notice, with many turning in best times though few tapered for the meet.

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The Princeton women set the tone early with a one-two finish in the 200-yard medley relay, establishing a winning trend for the swimming events. With four one-two-three finishes and seven one-two finishes, nothing was going to stop the Tigers, as they clinched the victory early in the meet.

Sophomore All-America Alicia Aemisegger set new school records in the 1,000-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly, breaking records she set last year. She won all three of her individual events decisively.

Senior co-captain Lisa Hamming had a meet of a lifetime, winning the 400-yard IM by a six-second margin in a personal-best time that ranks in the top 50 nationally. Hamming would go on to win the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard IM, also in personal-best times.

Freshman Meredith Monroe had an impressive meet, as she posted a new school record in the 200-yard backstroke, finishing under the NCAA ‘B’ cut with a time of one minute, 57.53 seconds.
Junior Katie Giarra led the women’s divers with second-place finishes in the one-meter and three-meter events after sitting out the beginning of the season due to an injury.

The men’s and women’s teams are only a few weeks away from their upcoming championships, as the men and women aim to repeat as EISL and Ivy League champions, respectively, at the end of the month.