Swimming & Diving: Princeton takes 3rd at season-opening meet

The men, ranked No. 25 in the country, finished with a total of 478.5 points. No. 8 Virginia won the meet with 885 points, and No. 23 Virginia Tech came in second with 695.

“We just came back from an intense fall training trip, so we weren’t expecting to have personal bests,” sophomore Kaspar Raigla said. “We know where we are now and how much we have to improve.”

Top contributors to the Tiger cause were juniors Colin Cordes and Jon Christensen. Cordes had four top-10 finishes and two third-place finishes in team relays. Christensen also had four top-10 finishes, as well as two fifth-place finishes in medleys and one third-place finish. Christensen recorded the men’s only first-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, which he tied with Virginia swimmer Taylor Grey.

To open the meet, senior Geoff Faux, sophomore Andres Tung, junior Matt LaMonaca and sophomore Will Lawley took fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle relay, less than two seconds behind the first place Virginia squad. In the 50-yard freestyle race, Cordes came in eighth, with Faux following him in 10th out of 32 competitors.

Christensen took second place in the 200-yard individual medley race, only 0.12 seconds behind Virginia’s Grey. Next for Christensen was the 400-yard medley relay, with teammates Cordes, Faux and senior Brett Lullo. The foursome took fifth place in 3 minutes, 28:82 seconds.

Beginning the second day of competition, Christensen, Lullo and Faux were joined by Raigla to take fifth place again in the 200-yard medley relay. Last season, Raigla was the Ivy League backstroke champion, and he took 10th place in the 100-yard backstroke in 51.96 seconds.

In the 200-yard freestyle race, Cordes came in sixth place, with Tung behind him in 13th. Tung and Cordes then worked together with Lullo and Christensen to come in third place in the 800-yard freestyle relay, behind two Virginia groups. Cordes went on to take fifth place in the 100-yard freestyle in 46.35 seconds, while Tung came in 10th place only 0.38 seconds later.

Christensen’s third and final top-two finish came in the 200-yard breaststroke, in 2:02.45, once again behind Grey.

In diving, sophomore Stevie Vines had the best showing for the Tigers in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives, coming in fifth and sixth place overall, respectively.

The women’s team was lead by senior Megan Waters, freshman Andrea Kropp, and sophomores Sarah Furgatch and Carter Stephens. Waters and Kropp both won individual races — Waters took first in the 100-yard butterfly and Kropp won the 200-yard individual medley

Overall, Princeton accumulated 567.5 points, with No. 18 Virginia Tech taking second with 619.5 points and No. 11 Virginia winning with 968 points.

The first race for Princeton was a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay with Waters, freshman Lisa Boyce, Stephens and junior Jillian Altenburger. Then, Furgatch earned a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley and went on to join Stephens, Waters and Boyce in the 200-yard medley relay. The foursome took fourth place in 1:45.83, less than half a second behind a Virginia Tech team in third.

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Waters took second place in the 50-yard freestyle in 23.37 seconds, and Stephens placed in the top 10 with a time of 24.28 seconds. The two were joined by Boyce and Kropp in the 400-yard medley relay to earn a third-place finish.

The 100-yard butterfly was an exciting race for the Tigers, as Waters took her second first-place finish with less than 0.3 seconds between her and Virginia’s second-place finisher. Stephens came in third place just 0.42 seconds later, and Kropp took fifth place.

On the second day of the tournament, Waters came in fourth in the 100-yard freestyle, and Furgatch placed second in the 200-yard breaststroke, only a quarter of a second behind first place. Kropp finished third in the 200-yard butterfly, with Stephens making the top 10.

In women’s diving, junior Christina Kirkwood had the best performance for the Tigers in the 1-meter dive, coming in third overall with a score of 237.45. All-America sophomore Bryna Tsai finished fourth in the 3-meter competition with 235.35 points.

Next weekend, both the men and women will begin vying for another Ivy League championship with a meet against Cornell and Penn in Ithaca, N.Y.

“We’re pumped for the dual meet,” Raigla said. “We’re hoping to go undefeated in dual meets like last year, and to continue building on our success.”