The men and women’s swimming and diving teams have aced their midterms — their swimming midterms, that is. The women won 18 of 20 events, while the men triumphed in 13 contests at the Big Al Invitational this past weekend.
“We felt like this was a bit of a ‘midterm’ test to see if we are on track,” women’s head coach Susan Teeter said. “We had some great swims across the board, so we were very happy with the areas we have been working on as a team.”
The meet, hosted at DeNunzio Pool, was Princeton’s first of the season. The Tigers competed against Bucknell, Fordham, The College of New Jersey and New York University, as well as against some talented unaffiliated swimmers.
The women started the meet — and the season — in strong fashion, with a dominating performance in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of junior Megan Waters, senior co-captain Courtney Kilkuts, junior Emily Trautner and sophomore Jillian Altenburger won the event by a margin of one minute, 34.68 seconds, beating second-place Fordham by open water.
Then the Tigers crushed the 500 free. Senior Alicia Aemisegger cruised to victory in 4:45.75 seconds. The 10-time All-American won the event by almost 10 seconds — nearly a whole length of the pool. She was followed by a swarm of fellow Tigers: Junior Min Ong,who recorded a lifetime best of 4:55.55; sophomore Aislinn Smalling; Altenburger; junior Nicole McAndrew; junior Lauren Benjamin; and freshman Sarah Furgatch took the next six places, respectively.
Aemisegger went back to conquering the waves, and the competition, during the 200 individual medley, the next event in the competition. Her beautiful technique and superior stamina carried her to the wall first in 2:19. Kilkuts took second place, while Altenburger and freshman Carter Stephens also placed in the top five in the event.
Waters left the rest of the competition to struggle through her wake in the 50-yard freestyle event. Flying to the wall in 23.24 seconds, she won the event by a full body length, a rare occurrence in such a short race. Waters also powered her way to a decisive victory in the 100 free.
Sealing the session’s success, the squad of Waters, Kilkuts, Aemisegger and Altenburger fought from behind to claim victory in the 400 medley relay.
The next day, the Tigers clawed their way from behind once again in the 200 medley relay. Waters, Aemisegger, Stephens and Kilkuts edged out Fordham for the win by two-tenths of a second, stopping the clock at 1:46.12.
Aemisegger blew the competition out of the water once again in the 400 individual medley. She immediately took the lead and extended it with each stroke, ultimately touching the wall in 4:13.78. This was 15 seconds — one-and-a-half pool lengths — before second-place finisher and teammate McAndrew.
Aemisegger was back in the pool for the next race as well. Displaying no hint of fatigue, she won the 100 fly in 55.17 seconds, followed by three teammates to round out the top four.
She then concluded her impressive weekend in the 200 fly. Any effects of her daunting event list were unapparent in the water. Clean, powerful strokes led her to yet another win.
Altenburger and Ong joined forces for a one-two punch in the 200 free. Another Princeton duo of Kilkuts and Furgatch out-swam a tough field in the 100 breast. Then, in a reversal of finishes, the two Tigers topped the field in the 200 breast.
McAndrew led the way in the 1650 free, winning in 17:05.13. Ong and Smalling followed in second and third places.
Princeton completed its sweep of the relays with wins in the 800 free and 400 free. The Tigers took one-two in the former, and in the latter, anchor Aemisegger’s innate drive pulled her away from Fordham and Bucknell to win the meet’s final event by two body lengths.
Princeton was equally successful in diving. Sophomore Courtney Fieldman won the one-meter competition with 238.35 points, and freshman Bryna Tsai won the three-meter event with 249.15 points.
The men also put on an impressive showing on the diving board. Freshman phenomenon Stevie Vines not only swept the diving events, but his score of 355.20 points on the three-meter qualified him for the Zone “A” Diving Championships.
In the 200 free relay, freshman Andres Tung took an early lead, which sophomore Matthew LaMonaca, sophomore Michael Monovoukas and junior Geoffrey Faux extended, propelling Princeton to first place in 1:24.12.
The 500 free was the only event of the evening that the Tigers did not take. Junior Colin Hanna was narrowly out-touched by former captain and Olympian Doug Lennox ’09. But Princeton more than made up for it by capturing second through sixth places in the event.
Hanna tasted revenge over his former teammate in the next event. Lennox led the way for the first half of the 200 IM, but Hanna fought his way back, surging ahead during the breaststroke. He held on during the freestyle portion to win the event by half a second. Lennox was disqualified.
Faux tore up the water in the 50 free, rushing into the wall first in 20.95 seconds. Fellow teammates took five of the next eight spots.
The night ended with another come-from-behind battle. Sophomore Colin Cordes, sophomore Jonathan Christensen, junior Brett Lullo and Faux prevailed in the 400 medley relay, beating Bucknell by almost three seconds.
The Tigers completed their sweep of the relays the next day, prevailing in the 200 medley, 800 free and 400 free.
Christensen and Hanna pushed each other to the brink in the 400 IM. The battle raged back and forth throughout the 16-length race, culminating in a neck-to-neck sprint to the finish. The teammates reached for the wall at the same time, but Christensen hit it first — by four one-hundredths of a second.
After a brief lull, Princeton’s dominance reemerged in the 1650. Sophomore Travis McNamara and junior Patrick Biggs quickly broke away from the rest of the field and eventually lapped most of the competition. They secured the top two spots in 16:08.82 seconds and 16:10.33, respectively.
Though no scores were kept, the Tigers ended the meet leaving no doubt about which was the strongest squad. Cordes led the Tigers to a one-two-three sweep in the 200 backstroke, and freshman Kila Pickering took the top spot in the team’s one-two finish in the 200 breaststroke.
The teams are already focused on their next task.
“The swimmers exceeded my goals and expectations, but we are looking forward to our Ivy League opener against Cornell and Penn,” Teeter said.
Both squads will face the Big Red and the Quakers at DeNunzio this Friday. The meet begins at 5 p.m.
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