This women’s Ivy League Championship just gets more and more exciting with every session: both in terms of records and in terms of how tight the racing has become. We saw two individual Ivy League Records go down at the hands of the meets stars, Katie Meili from Columbia and Alexandra Forrester from Yale.
Despite the performances of their leaders, those two teams are on the periphery of the battle for the team title, which poetically is coming down to Princeton and Harvard. Princeton has held a narrow 33.5 point lead with one day of competition to go, though Harvard was able to cut that about in half. That is easily surmountable on the meet’s final day, especially with races like the 100 free and 200 back where Harvard is seeded very highly, but it always feels better to be in the lead than to not be.
Women’s 200 Medley Relay Final
The top three teams in this race all went under the old Meet Record, but at the end of the day it was the Harvard Crimson who ended up on top of the podium in 1:39.48, followed by Columbia in 1:39.52 and Princeton in 1:39.66.
There were a lot of tough decisions to be made by the coaching staffs, as there always is in this short medley, so we saw some great head-to-head battles. None was better than at the very end, where two of the meet’s titans, Sara Li from Harvard and Katie Meili from Columbia, were trying to run down Princeton’s very good anchor, senior Carter Stephens, in the last 50 yards. Splitting 22.1, 22.0, and 22.7, respectively, it was Li who was able to hold off a charge from one of the greatest swimmers in conference history for the relay win.
Yale took 3rd in 1:40.21, including a 23.46 butterfly leg from Alexandra Forrester.
Women’s 1000 Free Final
The Ivy League is one of the few Division I Conference Championship meets that features a 1000 yard free (not an NCAA Championship event at this level), but the payoff is that we got to see Yale freshman Eva Fabian start to scratch the surface of her distance talent in the pool. She won the race here in 9:46.08, more than a 5-second margin of victory.
There’s a lot of freshman distance talent in this league; the top four were all newcomers. That rest of that group is made up of Marlee Ehrlich from Harvard (9:51.38), Casey Lincoln from Yale (9:53.46), and Sherry Liu from Harvard (9:54.83).
Women’s 400 IM Final
Columbia’s Alena Kluge continued an improbable run in this 400 IM by winning her first ever individual Ivy League title, as a junior, in 4:11.89. She overcame the defending champion, Courtney Otto of Harvard, on the last 50 yards; not an easy feat, as Otto has proven to be a very, very tough swimmer. Otto finished 2nd in 4:11.91.
If that wasn’t enough of an upset, consider that coming into this meet, Kluge’s best time in the event was from last year’s Ivy League Championship; in a 4:18. That’s a huge drop for a woman already into her junior year of high school.
Those two were followed by three-straight freshmen finishers, including Princeton’s Beverly Nguyen in 4:14.32.
Women’s 100 Fly Final
Yale’s Alexandra Forrester should be the billboard for the new program taking over this season at Yale under head coach Jim Henry. She has already been close to the top of the collegiate mountain, but this year has inserted herself firmly into the national title race with a lifetime best of 51.57 in the 100 fly. That breaks her own Ivy League record again, but just barely misses the 51.55 swum by Louisville’s Kelsi Worrell just minutes before hand as the #1-ranked time in the country this season.
Princeton freshmen Nikki Larson (53.21) and Morgan Karetnick (54.14) went 2-3 in this race.
Women’s 200 Free Final
Having momentum from her thrilling relay anchor, Harvard’s Sara Li got her second win of the night with a 1:46.48: once again, in come-from-behind fashion. She was about a fingers-length behind Penn junior Shelby Fortin, the 500 champion, going into the last 50 yards. But with a good last split, Li came back for the win. Fortin took 2nd in 1:46.67.
Jillian Altenburger from Princeton was 3rd in 1:46.93, with Brown’s Kate Dillione 4th in 1:47.49.
Women’s 100 Breast Final
Katie Meili just keeps getting better and better. From a 58.96 in prelims, her first time under the minute, she got down another half-a-second for a 58.44 in this final: easily again a new Meet Record.
Before you write her off as blowing her taper already, remember how her 2012 season went. There, she broke a minute for the first time and dropped a full second to go a 59.64, and still got faster at NCAA’s. If she does the same here, or even matches this time, she’s in line for a top-3 finish. Historically speaking, that places her now among the top 10 ever in the event in yards, at any level.
The runner-up was her teammate sophomore Mikaila Gaffey in 1:01.47, and Harvard’s Mackenzie Luick in 1:02.33.
Women’s 100 Back Final
A third League Record of the night went down in this women’s 100 back, as Princeton junior Lisa Boyce roared to a win in 52.93 – taking down her own record by .03 seconds from this meet last year.
She was followed by three freshmen, including her teammate Sada Stewart coming in 2nd in 53.53. Harvard’s Kendall Crawford was 3rd in 53.71, and Danielle Lee also from Harvard was 4th in 54.59.
Women’s 800 Free Relay Final
With three freshmen on their relay, and a 5-second seed deficit, coming into this meet, Princeton might’ve been considered an underdog. After Sara Li swam a 1:45.88 against the senior Altenburger to give the Crimson an early two-second lead, the race could’ve been over.
But those three Princeton freshmen, while nothing as flashy as Li’s split, were consistent, going 1:47’s and 1:48’s for the ultimate win in 7:12.64. That was just a tenth off of the Ivy record set by the last generation of Tigers in 2008. The winning relay was Altenburger, Nikki Larson, Elizabeth McDonald, and Sada Stewart.
Harvard, also with two freshmen on their relay, was 2nd in 7:14.27, while Columbia took 3rd in 7:14.81. Meili took on her third swim of the night in this relay, leading the LIons off in 1:47.26.
Full & Live meet results available here.
1. Princeton University 953.5
2. Harvard University 920
3. Columbia University 796
4. Yale University 694
5. Dartmouth College 565
6. University of Pennsylvania 503
7. Brown University 445.5
8. Cornell University 392