2016 IVY LEAGUE WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Thursday, February 18 – Saturday, February 20
- DeNunzio Pool, Princeton, NJ (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Princeton (results)
- Live results
- Live video
- Championship Central
This meet is shaping up to be the most exciting rendition of this championship ever. Yale has a legitimate chance to win their first Ivy League title in nearly twenty years. Still, Harvard has led through the first three days, and defending champion Princeton is just a handful of points behind.
The meet is essentially in tiers after that, with Penn well ahead of the other four schools but nowhere near the top three. Brown and Columbia are in a battle for fifth place while Cornell and Dartmouth duke it out for 7th.
200 Medley Relay:
Yale scored yet another relay victory, once again winning easily. The team of Jacquelyn Du, Paulina Kaminski, Maddy Zimmerman and Bella Hindley set a league record. Meanwhile, Brown shocked conference powers by getting the touch ahead of Harvard for second. The Bears got a monster breaststroke split (26.98) from sophomore Ally Donahue and held on from there.
Top three
- Yale 1:39.06
- Brown 1:40.26
- Harvard 1:40.33
1000 Freestyle:
Yale’s Cailley Silbert continues to outclass her own teammate Eva Fabian. Fabian was the defending champion but was bested by Silbert as well as Penn freshmen Madison Visco. Penn continues to be very strong in distance swimming, they finished 2nd, 6th, 10th and 12th in this race.
Top three
- Cailley Silbert, Yale 9:44.61
- Madison Visco, Penn 9:48.94
- Eva Fabian, Yale 9:49.65
400 IM:
Each of the top three teams put two swimmers in the top final. Much like the 200 IM, this event was significantly faster than a year ago. Defending champion Geordie Enoch swam a little slower than a year ago and moved back to fourth. Her Harvard teammate Sonia Wang led the entire way for the win, followed by two Princeton Tigers.
Top three
- Sonia Wang, Harvard 4:11.42
- Sada Stewart, Princeton 4:13.36
- Beverly Nguyen 4:15.27
100 Butterfly:
Maddy Zimmerman led a final that was packed with Princeton swimmers to get another win for Yale. This has traditionally strong event for Yale, with Zimmerman continuing the prior success of league record holder Alex Forrester.
At this point Harvard had nearly a one hundred point lead over Princeton, but the tide would turn starting here.
Top three:
- Maddy Zimmerman, Yale 52.81
- Isabel Reis, Princeton 53.25
- Kendall Crawford, Harvard 53.84
200 Freestyle
Bella Hindley took control and never looked back in the event that led Yale to briefly hold the lead on night three. She was able to build enough of a lead to hold off a strong back half from 500 champion Virginia Burns of Penn.
Kina Zhou had her second consecutive top three finish in this event for Yale.
Top three
- Bella Hindley, Yale 1:46.67
- Virginia Burns, Penn 1:47.06
- Kina Zhou, Yale 1:47.41
100 Breaststroke
Ally Donahue of Brown provided a big lift for her squad with a win in this race. The sophomore didn’t even take part a year ago, and swam a well measured race. Yale’s defending champion Paulina Kaminski took fifth.
Princeton had just one swimmer in the top eight but put four in the consolation final, taking the lead over Yale.
Top three
- Ally Donahue, Brown 1:01.21
- Meagan Popp, Harvard 1:01.65
- Olivia Chan, Princeton, 1:01.94
100 Backstroke
The 1-2 punch of Danielle Lee and Kendall Crawford took momentum back to the Crimson in this event. Lee’s win made it three titles in a row for the senior.
Harvard took 4th as well, surging into the lead with one event to go in the final.
Top three
- Danielle Lee, Harvard 53.13
- Kendal Crawford, Harvard 53.58
- Lindsay Temple, Princeton 53.82
800 Freestyle Relay
Yet another relay and yet another thrilling victory for Yale. The Bulldogs were neck and neck with Harvard before the Crimson’s Sonia Wang grabbed the lead. Yale had 200 freestyle champion Bella Hindley on their anchor, and they needed nearly every bit of her 1:46.1 split to win.
Penn was able to break into the top three in what was obviously going to be their strongest relay:
Top three
- Yale 7:12.44
- Harvard 7:12.78
- Penn 7:14.21
Team Scores After Day 3:
- Harvard University 956.5
- Princeton University 944.5
- Yale University 928
- University of Pennsylvania 654
- Brown University 498.5
- Columbia University 485
- Dartmouth College 387
- Cornell University 371.5