The crowd sat stunned, wide eyes transfixed on the blur of arms and legs pulling away bullet-like from the rest. “How can she be so far ahead?”
Whispers mounted as the leader flipped into the final wall. “I’ve never seen anything like this — she’s ahead by a pool length!”
The torrent of waves and furiously flying hands and feet darted into the finish as the rest of the competition turned off the wall at the other end of the pool.
In the 200-yard individual medley, an event in which competitors are typically separated by fractions of seconds, senior co-captain Alicia Aemisegger won by over nine full ones.
And that was only a fraction of the team’s daily dose of success.
The women’s swimming defeated Columbia 141-94 on Friday afternoon.
As the final dual meet of the season, a lot was at stake: the last meet in DeNunzio Pool for the season, the last chance for the seniors to compete for Princeton at home and an undefeated season.
But the team was more than up to the challenge.
Sandwiched in between the Harvard-Princeton-Yale meet and the Ivy League Championships, the meet enabled swimmers to deviate from their typical program.
In addition, those competing at Ivies “had a pretty tough week of training,” senior co-captain Courtney Kilkuts said. “So we were just looking to see how fast we could go when our bodies were broken down,” she added.
The answer: very fast.
Aemisegger did not just crush the competition in the 200 -yard individual medley; her time of one minute 58.37 seconds broke the school record.
The recently named Princeton Female Athlete of the Decade now holds nine such titles.
Junior Megan Waters and sophomore Meredith Monroe each picked up two individual wins to further widen the gap in the score. Waters left the competition to battle through her wake in the 5o-yard freestyle, touching the wall three-quarters of a body length in front of second-place finisher and teammate junior Emily Trautner.
Waters also established a lead from the start in the 100-yard backstroke. Quick turns and a powerful underwater kick that propelled her over 10 meters off each wall extended Waters’ lead with each length. She captured the event in 57.57 seconds, followed by junior Julie Kochman and freshman Alexa Powers in second and third, respectively.
Monroe led Princeton to a one-two-three finish in the 200-yard freestyle, with Kilkuts and sophomore Aislinn Smalling snagging the other two spots.
The top three Tigers once again held off the Lions in the 500-yard free.
Monroe surged ahead in the last 150 yards for the win, and junior Lauren Benjamin and sophomore Lauren Shanley fended off the top two Columbia women to take the next two places.
Princeton continued to augment its individual win collection with the 400-yard IM, which freshman Sarah Furgatch won by four seconds in 4:26.23.
Kilkuts took the 100-yard butterfly, and junior Ming Ong proved her proficiency outside the realm of distance swimming by claiming victory in the 100-yard free.
Princeton divers matched the swimmers’ success, sweeping both the one-meter and three-meter events. Junior Carolyn Littlefield earned 267.22 points to take the one-meter title. Separating herself from the field with 279.08 points, freshman Bryna Tsai won the three-meter competition.
The win secured for Princeton an undefeated regular season, but the team already has devoted all of its energy and focus to its next task: using the next three weeks to become as prepared as possible for Ivies.
“I think as we enter the last few weeks before heading to Ivies, we’re just really going to focus on coming together as a team even more than we have all season,” Kilkuts said. “We’ve put in all the hard work already, and now we get to focus on refining our technique and the other technical details.”
While the women’s meet beat the snow, the men’s meet against Navy scheduled for last Saturday was postponed due to Friday night’s snow storm. No alternative date has been announced yet.
Harvard will host the Ivy League Women’s Championships from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27, and Princeton will host the men’s championships the following week.
Read More
With Pierce to sit out the year, men’s basketball loses last senior standing
Harrison BlankSenior forward Caden Pierce announced today that he will be sitting out his senior season of basketball at Princeton in the interests of maintaining his final year of eligibility.
Senior forward Caden Pierce announced today that he will be sitting out his senior season of basketball at Princeton in the interests of maintaining his final year of eligibility.
Women’s ice hockey names Courtney Kessel as new head coach
Lily PampolinaFollowing the resignation of Cara Gardner Morey, Princeton appointed Courtney Kessel as head coach.
Following the resignation of Cara Gardner Morey, Princeton appointed Courtney Kessel as head coach.
Former women’s basketball forward Parker Hill ’25 signs professional contract in Switzerland
Doug SchwartzAfter a successful senior season, women's basketball forward Parker Hill signed a contact to play professional basketball in Europe, following in the steps of her past teammates.
After a successful senior season, women's basketball forward Parker Hill signed a contact to play professional basketball in Europe, following in the steps of her past teammates.