Women's Swimming Finishes Third at Ivy League Championships

This past weekend, the women’s swimming and diving team wrapped up the season with a strong performance at the Ivy League Championships hosted at DeNunzio pool. The Tigers grabbed 1411.5 points, earning them a third place finish. Yale, this year’s HYP winners, grabbed second place with 1422.5 points. Harvard took home the title with 1500.5 points.

The Princeton squad showed remarkable resilience throughout the three-day championship to conclude Ivy competition. Starting the competition, the Tigers faced a sizable disadvantage, having the fewest swimmers competing among the top three.

However,the Tigers were not discouraged, and the team’s depth was on full display. Indeed, Princeton fielded five of the top ten swimmers in the 200 IM, including senior Sada Stewart, who finished third in the event. Other notable performances included senior Elizabeth McDonald’s third-place finish in the 50 free and freshman Monica McGrath’s fifth-place in the 500 free. In addition, Princeton also managed to snag the bronze medal in both the 200-free and 400-medley relays.

As expected, the Tigers made their move on the second day. Surging past Yale, Princeton claimed the second-place spot with 944.5 points. Harvard still sat at the top of the ranks with 956.5 points. No other team had yet made it past the 700-point marker, cementing a repeat of the three-team battle from the HYP meet earlier in the season.

As with the day one, the Tigers once again put on a memorable performance in front of a home crowd. Stewart finished second in the 400 IM with a time of 4:13.56. Fellow senior Beverly Nguyen took third. This was followed by a second-place swim from freshman Isabel Reis in the 100 fly. Later, junior Olivia Chan took third in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:01.94. To add onto the tally, the Tigers clinched the fourth spot in both the 200-medley relay and the 800-free relay.

Despite the late surge by Princeton, the Crimson was able to fight off any contenders on the final day to take home the trophy. Harvard had qualified all six of its divers in the 3-m event, which proved crucial to their success. The Bulldogs managed to rally, however, to wrestle a hotly contested second from the Tigers. The Crimson’s victory will continue the Harvard-Princeton duopoly over the Ivy League Championship, seeing as no other team has won the trophy since the winter of 2000.

While the finish was not what they hoped for, the Tigers had plenty to be proud of as they title race came to a close. Several Tigers showed promising performances: McGrath took sixth in the mile while freshmen Lindsey Swartz, Kathryn Didion and Janet Zhao all placed top eight in the 200 Breast. But the highlight of the day must have come from sophomore Lindsay Temple, who won the 200 back in a surprising upset over reigning champions Danielle Lee. Temple took the even in record-breaking fashion with a time of 1:55.14.

While the Tiger’s finished third, the resilience of the team showed throughout the competition. Combined with the team’s depth and tradition of excellence, the Tigers seem poised to improve on an already successful 2015-16 season.