Swimming & Diving: Records shattered as Tigers dominate in pool

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams traveled to Hanover, N.H., over Intersession for a meet against Dartmouth that they hoped would tune them up for the prestigious Harvard-Yale-Princeton (HYP) meet the following weekend. This was a successful strategy, as both the men’s and women’s teams won both competitions.

The Princeton men (6-0 overall, 6-0 Ivy League) defeated Dartmouth 181-119 and, buoyed by this victory, went on to overcome Harvard, 203-150, and Yale, 242-106. Not to be outdone by their male counterparts, the Princeton women (6-0, 6-0) claimed a 169-126 win over Dartmouth, followed by 196-102 and 191-107 victories over Harvard and Yale, respectively.

In Hanover, freshman diver Stevie Vines’ narrow victory in the three-meter competition got the meet off to a promising start. Vines added another tight win in the one-meter competition, edging out his Dartmouth rivals by less than 1.5 points.

The men opened the swimming events with a win from the quartet of freshman Kaspar Raigla, sophomore Jon Christensen, sophomore Bryan Tay and senior Jon Hartmann in the 200-yard medley relay. The group clocked in at one minute, 33.81 seconds. Tay also recorded an individual win in the 200-yard freestyle, followed closely by his relay teammate Christensen.

In another close battle between teammates, junior Colin Hanna edged ahead of freshman Andres Tung to win the 100-yard free by 0.1 seconds. Junior Brett Lullo recorded a win in the 400-yard individual medley, and senior Chris Quemena won both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke, the latter by a margin of over six seconds. The Tigers had a strong showing in the 500-yard free, with sophomore Colin Cordes, freshman Will Lawley and Hartmann taking the top three positions. To close the meet in style, junior Geoff Faux, Hartmann, Lullo and freshman Brian Barrett captured the 300-yard freestyle relay in 2:09.10.

After a week of training over Intersession, the Tigers successfully defended their 20-year undefeated streak at DeNunzio Pool.

“You definitely don’t want to be the first loss at that pool,” Barrett said of the pressure of defending such an impressive record. “I think that’s always in the back of your mind when you’re swimming there. All that makes you swim better, though, in my opinion ... Since Rob [Orr has] been the coach all of those years, you don’t want to lose for him.”

At the midway point in the two-day competition, Harvard still appeared to be an imminent threat, as the men left the pool on Friday with a margin of victory of only 14 points over the Crimson (100-86). On Saturday, however, the Tigers rose to the challenge, winning six of the nine events that day to beat both opponents.

“The first day, I think we were expecting to be further ahead, so the second day we all had the mentality that we had to step up,” Barrett said.

Senior Dan Dickerson defended his Ivy League title in the one-meter men’s diving competition, and Raigla, Christensen, sophomore Mike Monovoukas and sophomore Matt LaMonaca opened the swimming events on Saturday in a similarly successful fashion, finishing over a second ahead of the field in 1:30.18. Tay recorded a win in the 100-yard butterfly, and Christensen added his third win of the weekend in the 200-yard breaststroke by a margin of over two seconds.

After being swept in the 500-yard freestyle, Princeton retaliated by taking the top two spots in the 400-yard relay to wrap up the meet.

The women’s team dominated against Dartmouth, winning 12 of the 14 swimming events and taking second and fourth places in both the one- and three-meter diving competitions. The Tigers also set two new records during the meet. Sophomore Meredith Monroe, senior Alicia Aemisegger, freshman Arlene Douglas and senior Courtney Kilkuts won the 200-yard medley relay in 1:47.02. Aemisegger added an individual record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:01.23.

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Princeton added wins from junior Emily Trautner in the 50-yard freestyle, freshman Carter Stephens in the 100-yard freestyle and junior Ming Ong in the 200-yard backstroke. Kilkuts dominated in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing over three seconds ahead of the field, while in a more tense competition, sophomore Hannah Cody won the 100-yard breaststroke, edging out Dartmouth’s Caitlin Keenan by only .04 seconds.

Freshman Sarah Furgatch won the 400-yard individual medley in 4:28.18, and sophomore Jillian Altenburger won the 200-yard free in 1:52.62. After a string of strong second-place finishes, sophomore Aislin Smalling rejuvenated the women’s winning spirit as she took the 500-yard freestyle, and junior Nicole McAndrew, Trautner, Ong and junior Megan Waters followed with a victory in the 300-yard freestyle relay.

Hanover proved to be no more than a warm-up for the women’s team, as they shined at DeNunzio. Princeton produced four new school records and a multitude of personal bests in the team’s strongest showing of its already impressive undefeated season. Monroe set records in both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke, and Kilkuts broke the 100-yard breaststroke record, which had stood for 18 years. Those two teamed up with Aemisegger and Waters to break the school record in the 200-yard medley relay.

Aemisegger was in a league of her own, as she finished 18 seconds ahead of Smalling in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Altenburger secured a win in the 200-yard free, emerging victorious from a battle with Harvard’s Katherine Mills by a margin of 1.5 seconds. Waters took the 50-yard butterfly, while Aemisegger set a pool record with an NCAA “A” cut time in the 200-yard butterfly. She added another dominating win in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing 13 seconds ahead of the field.

Both the men’s and women’s teams should enter their final home meet against Columbia on Friday with confidence that they can match their performances from the past weekend.