2014 Men’s Ivy League Championships – Day One Up/Mid/Down: Harvard, Penn Beating Expectations

2014 Men’s Ivy League Championships

• Dates: Thursday, February 27 – Saturday, March 1, 2014; prelims 11:00 am, finals 6:00 pm
• Location: Blodgett Pool, Cambridge, Mass (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champions: Princeton (results)
• Psych Sheet: Available
• Live Results: 500 free │ 200 IM │ 50 free
• Live Video: Available
• Championship Central

Up/Mid/Down

Harvard wasted no time getting a jump on their Ivy foes at the 2014 Men’s Ivy League Championship in Cambridge, Mass. Leading the field with 15 finalists for tonight’s session, Harvard is poised to dominate the first day of Ivies. We had expected the Crimson to score heavily in the 500 and 50 frees, and they did even better than anticipated. Some of the high notes from the morning session:

500 free – Brown 0/1/2, Columbia 1/0/1, Cornell 0/1/0, Dartmouth 0/0/2, Harvard 3/5/0, Penn 1/1/2, Princeton 1/0/1, Yale 2/0/0. Meet record: 4:18.04 Travis McNamara (Princeton, 2009); Pool Record: 4:17.81 Brian Goodell (UCLA, 1980).

Harvard managed to get 8 finalists into the very first event, including the top qualifier, freshman Aly Abdel Khalik. Brown, Columbia and Cornell all did better than expected here, too.

Penn’s Chris Swanson and Yale’s Brian Hogan will be on either side of Abdel Khalik in tonight’s final. Two freshmen, Cliff Goertemiller of Harvard and Nikita Bondarenko of Columbia, each dropped 9.5 seconds off their respective seed times to make the “A” final, while Taylor Wilson of Cornell dropped 8 to slide into the “B”. Senior Ed Becker of Yale improved his seed time by a whopping 16.3 seconds but missed out on a second swim by .05.

200 IM – Brown 0/0/1, Columbia 0/1/1, Cornell 0/1/1, Dartmouth 1/0/1, Harvard 1/2/0, Penn 1/2/3, Princeton 4/1/1, Yale 1/1/0. Meet Record: 1:43.94 Nejc Zupan (Dartmouth, 2013); Pool Record: 1:45.52, Nick D’Innocenzo (Andover, 2009).

Princeton came bouncing back in the next event, getting four Tigers into the “A” final, led by top-seeded Teo D’Alessandro. Penn’s Rhoads Worster dropped two seconds, broke his school record, and qualified second with 1:46.36. Dartmouth’s Zupan was third in 1:46.44, just .01 ahead of Princeton’s Byron Sanborn.

Penn had a particularly successful 200 IM. Two Quakers, Grant Proctor and Bobby Francis, improved their seed times by a combined 12 seconds to make the “B” final, while their teammates Michael Wen, Cole Hurwitz, and Brendan Crystal all had big drops and will compete in tonight’s “C” final.

50 free – Brown 0/2/2, Columbia 0/3/0, Cornell 0/0/2, Dartmouth 1/0/0, Harvard 4/0/0, Penn 1/2/0, Princeton 2/0/3, Yale 0/1/1. Meet Record: 18.90 Alex Righi (Yale, 2009); Pool Record: 19.41 Alex Righi (Yale, 2008).

Harvard turned right around and placed four of their own into tonight’s sprint final. The top three seeds are all from the host school: Oliver Lee (19.65), Griffin Schumacher (19.76), and Chris Satterthwaite (19.92).

The diving is taking place right now. Finals begin at 6:00 p.m.