Swimming & Diving: Teams hope to continue ferocious starts at Big Al Open

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will host the Big Al Open this weekend at DeNunzio Pool. Both the men and women are 2-0 in dual meets and hope to continue their strong starts.

Brown, Fordham, Rider and Villanova will send both men’s and women’s squads to the meet; the women will also host Rutgers and James Madison, and the men will host Columbia. The Big Al Open begins Friday and lasts through Sunday.

“The Big Al meet is going to be our first prelim-final competition this season,” senior tri-captain Colin Cordes said. “The key is for us to swim fast in the mornings so that we can reach the A final at night, where the most points can be scored. If we continue to swim as we have this season, I think we will have a good chance at winning this meet this season, though it will still be a challenging competition.”

“The key to winning the meet this weekend is racing,” senior co-captain Meredith Monroe said. “If we focus on racing the person next to us and getting our hand on the wall, then the rest will come.”

The freshmen have appeared to adjust well to being on a college team. Both groups of rookies have made significant impacts early in the season — a pattern they hope to continue at this meet.

“The transition from swimming in high school to swimming at Princeton has been very smooth, mainly because of the leadership on the team,” freshman Oliver Bennett said. “[Senior] tri-captains Colin Cordes, Michael Monovoukas and Jonathan Christensen, as well as individuals in each class, have shown the freshmen what it means to be part of the team and the amount of work that is required to make an impact in the Ivy League.”

Freshman Claire Loht, who won the 200 free and 500 free in earlier competitions, had a similar opinion. “It was definitely a major adjustment transitioning from high school to college swimming, but all of the older women were so helpful in the process. One of my favorite aspects of the team is that everyone works together, no matter what events we race.”

“Our first meet against Penn and Cornell was the freshmen’s first [dual] meet of the season, and they swam really well,” Cordes said. “Overcoming this first obstacle is huge for the freshman class, and having a win helped set the tone for the rest of our season.”

“The freshmen have done an incredible job of bonding with their new teammates and getting accustomed to the new lifting and practice schedule,” Monroe added. “The sophomores have been crucial in helping out with the day-to-day questions and serving as mentors. The upperclassmen are important leaders because they pass down enthusiasm for our team’s traditions and work ethic to the freshmen. College and college swimming can be hard to adjust to, and I think our team as a whole has done a good job at making the transition a little easier for the freshmen.”

The men are looking to continue their great start to the season on their quest to win the Ivy League championship for the fourth straight time.

“To win the meet, we have to swim like we know we can,” Bennett said. “The goal is to post fast times to make a statement to the rest of the Ivy League. The team has been very impressive in the past couple weeks, and I feel confident that we will be making that statement.”

The women are in a similar situation, as they have won the Ivy League Championship the past two years and are off to an equally good start as the men.