2018 Women’s Ivy League Championships Day 3: Impressive Double for Dahlke

2018 Women’s Ivy League Swimming & Diving Championships

• Wednesday, February 14 – Saturday, February 17
• Blodgett Pool, Cambridge, MA (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Yale (results)
• Day 1 results │ Day 2 results │ Day 3 results
• Championship Central

Day Three

Host team Harvard continues to lead the field after three days of competition at the 2018 Women’s Ivy League Championships. The Crimson women won two individual events and placed two or three swimmers in every A final to stay ahead of perennial rivals Yale and Princeton. Penn has maintained its lead over Brown for the fourth spot on the ladders, while Columbia has put distance between itself and Cornell and Dartmouth.

1000 Yard Freestyle

• Meet Record: 9:33.43 2008 Alicia Aemisegger, Princeton
• Pool Record: 9:28.49 2007 Kate Ziegler (Fish)

Yale senior Cailley Silbert (9:46.16) won her third consecutive title in the 1000 free, touching 5 seconds ahead of teammate Kendall Brent (9:51.12). Penn’s Grace Ferry, runner-up in 2017, came to the wall third with 9:55.83. Cornell senior Micaela Luders set a school record with her sixth-place finish of 9:58.63.

400 Yard Individual Medley

• Meet Record: 4:06.15 2009 Alicia Aemisegger, Princeton
• Pool Record: 4:04.63 1981 Tracy Caulkins (Nashville)

Princeton freshman Regan Barney used a strong second half to outpace the field in the 400 IM, winning comfortably in 4:13.48. Second place went to Geordie Enoch of Harvard (4:14.75), who had won the 200 IM on Thursday. Yale’s Bebe Thompson edged teammate Destiny Nelson, 4:15.15 to 4:15.69, for third. Princeton’s Joanna Curry held the lead for the first 200 yards but the breaststrokers did their thing over the second half of the race and she wound up fifth.

100 Yard Butterfly

• Meet record: 51.57 2013 Alex Forrester (Yale)
• Pool Record: 52.51 2012 Alex Forrester (Yale)

Miki Dahlke of Harvard pulled off a stunning double on Friday night, winning the 100 fly and 200 free in quick succession. She broke the pool record in the fly by .38 but fell .32 shy of the meet record with her time of 51.89. Yale’s Maddy Zimmerman finished second with 52.89. Zimmerman was also runner-up a year ago; she won this event as a sophomore. Princeton junior Isabel Reis took third for the second year in a row; she touched in 53.08 ahead of Heidi VanderWel of Yale (53.40) and defending champion Brittany Usinger of Harvard (53.55). Places 6-8 went to Princeton flyers Elsa Welshofer, Elaine Zhou, and Claire McIlmail. Princeton’s 4 top-8 finishes helped to keep the Tigers within 100 points of Yale and within 160 of leading Harvard after two nights of competition; last year they trailed the top two teams by 370 and 440 points.

200 Yard Freestyle

• Meet record: 1:45.23 2017 Miki Dahlke (Harvard)
• Pool Record: 1:45.74 1981 Tracy Caulkins (Nashville)

Dahlke jumped right back onto the blocks after her butterfly win and claimed the 200 free title in 1:45.38. That was good enough for a pool record but not quite as fast as the championship meet record she set in prelims last year. Dahlke exacted sweet revenge over Penn’s Virginia Burns, who had come from behind to out-touch her over the final 25 yards in 2017. This time it was Burns who’d led through the 175, and Dahlke who slipped by for the win. Harvard’s Kennidy Quist also got her hand to the wall just ahead of Burns, earning second place by .01, 1:45.75 to 1:45.76. Princeton’s McIlmail also pulled off an impressive 100 fly-200 free double; she finished sixth in the latter.

100 Yard Breaststroke

• Meet Record: 58.44 2013 Katie Moll, Columbia
• Pool Record: 59.64 2012 Katie Meili (Columbia)

Yale’s Cha O’Leary successfully defended her 2017 title in the 100 breast with a program record of 1:00.13. A trio of freshmen followed the season veteran Bulldog (she’s a sophomore). Dartmouth’s Mackenzie Stumpf led the way with 1:01.56, stopping the clock .34 ahead of Princeton’s Jenny Ma (1:01.90). Both came from behind to overtake Harvard’s Ingrid Wall, who had taken it out with O’Leary but couldn’t hang on to that pace over the second half of the race. Helen Wojdylo of Columbia (1:02.39) came in fifth.

100 Yard Backstroke

• Meet record: 52.77 2014 Danielle Lee (Harvard)
• Pool Record: 52.96 2012 Lisa Boyce (Princeton)

Yale’s VanderWel defended her title in the backstroke with a championship and pool record of 52.45. Penn freshman Quinn Scannell was second with 53.57, touching the pad just ahead of 2017 runner-up Hindley (53.68). Harvard’s Kristina Li (54.15) repeated her 2017 position as the fourth finisher; Princeton’s Stephanie Nelson (54.92) and Lindsay Temple (54.97) came to the wall just ahead of Cornell’s seventh-place Helen Hsu (54.98).

400 Yard Medley Relay

• Meet record: 3:35.95 M 2017 Yale (H. Vanderwel, C. O’Leary, M. Zimmerman, K. Zhou)
• Pool Record: 3:39.09 P 2015 Yale (H. VenderWel, P. Kaminski, M. Zimmerman, K. Zhou)

Yale closed out Day Two with another meet and pool record in the 400 medley relay. After destroying the championship, pool, and school marks last year, the Bulldogs went at it again in Blodgett Pool. The quartet of VanderWel (52.79), O’Leary (1:00.40), Zimmerman (52.66), and Hindley (48.37) combined for 3:34.22, or more than 1.7 seconds faster than the meet record, and more than 5.2 seconds faster than second-place Harvard (3:38.39). Princeton took third with 3:40.51; Columbia was fourth (3:42.27).

Standings after Day Three:

1. Harvard University 1053
2. Yale University 990
3. Princeton University 893
4. University of Pennsylvania 626.5
5. Brown University 503
6. Columbia University 472
7. Cornell University 413.5
8. Dartmouth College 321