Tigers win two as end draws near

The Princeton women (9-0 overall) finished their dual meet season undefeated, making this their second dual-meet championship in two years, with a 155-128 win over Columbia (7-2).

Riding a strong wake after their impressive results at Harvard-Yale-Princeton, the Tigers proved Friday night that their results were anything but a fluke. Despite the majority of the team swimming off events, Princeton still managed to build a definitive lead in the first 10 events and ultimately set the stage for the upcoming Ivy League Championship.

The Princeton ‘A’ 200-yard medley relay of freshmen Julie Kochman and Megan Waters, sophomore Courtney Kilkuts and junior Justina DiFazio kicked off the meet with a winning time of one minute, 47.86 seconds. Immediately after that, Kilkuts won the 400-yard IM, with junior Alex Wiley placing second.

One of the most impressive finishes for the Princeton women came from senior Brittney Delgado, who won the 100-yard butterfly in 55.73 seconds. Delgado had an impressive finish at HYP last week and hopes to make the Ivy Championship team in the coming weeks.

“Last weekend people just swam so fast,” senior Ellen Gray said. “We’re really psyched to taper and shave and swim even faster at Ivies [after finishing as dual meet champions].”

On the boards, it was a return to an old tradition, as junior Katie Giarra came back from injury to defend her titles in the one-meter and three-meter events. After making her season debut at HYP, Giarra will once again prove to be a critical factor on the boards in the Ivy League Championship, as she has consistently placed in the top three for the past two years.

Freshman Carolyn Littlefield also had an impressive meet, finishing third in both events and establishing herself as a great asset for the diving team in championships to come.

Despite being a non-scholarship school, Princeton has dominated its competition this year, and the women’s times have been compatible to those of top-20 scholarship swim programs.

While there is no particular root of this success, it does stem from a basic idea important to the Tigers: family.

“[Head Coach Susan] Teeter and [assistant coach] Phil [Spiniello] do a really good job of brining us together and making us feel like a family,” Gray said. “Everyone really cares about each other … and it creates a great environment for fast swimming.”

The men’s swimming and diving team (7-1) also moved one step closer to an EISL championship of its own with an impressive 183-109 win against Navy (15-2).

Despite a rough loss against Harvard at last week’s HYP, the Princeton men continue to post top times as they prepare for a Crimson rematch at the EISL championships.

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The Tigers took DeNunzio Pool by storm Saturday afternoon with top times in 13 of the 14 swimming events. The 200-yard medley ‘A’ relay team of freshman Geoff Faux, sophomore George Rae-Grant and juniors Doug Lennox and Michael Carter took first in 1:31.56.

The Princeton team kept its perfect all-time home record intact, showing a mix of talent and depth as the Tigers battled Navy. Junior Robert Griest had an especially fast finish in the 1,000-yard freestyle, finishing in 9:19.51 as he pulled ahead of freshman Pat Biggs, who followed closely in second.

Rae-Grant kept the momentum going as he won the 100-yard breaststroke in 57.27 seconds, finishing ahead of senior teammate Seok Jun Lee.

The men’s diving team also had an impressive meet, with sophomore Dan Dickerson dominating in the one-meter event, followed by senior Stuart Malcolm, whose score of 285.38 was good for third place. On the three-meter board it was the duo again who pulled ahead for Princeton, as Malcolm and Dickerson finished second and third, respectively.

The men have one dual meet left in the season against Columbia as they prepare to taper for the EISL Championships in March. The women have only until the end of the month as they too taper and shave for the Ivy League Championship, which will be held at DeNunzio from Feb. 28 to March 1.