Men’s 200 Free Relay Final
The Harvard men, with three of the top four qualifiers in the 50 free final, broke the Brown University Pool, and Harvard School, Records in the 200 free relay to kick off Thursday with a 1:18.06. That will be enough to ensure the relay, at least, a bid to NCAA’s.
The team of Griffin Schumacher, Danny Crigler, Oliver Lee, and Chris Satterthwaite teamed up to very nearly break the Meet Record; Lee split a 19.01 on the third leg to give them some breathing room ahead of a Columbia relay that surprised to take 2nd in 1:18.80.
Crigler, who was only in the B-Final in the individual, proved to be a stout relay performer by splitting 19.48 on the Crimson’s second leg.
Princeton, led off by a 19.79 from Harrison Wagner, took 3rd in 1:19.29, and all three of those teams were under the Pool Record set earlier this season by Princeton. Interestingly, at that point of the season, the Tigers had their freshman Teo D’Alessandro on this relay. Either way, they were the only relay in this field with four sub-20 splits, so a good swim for them as well.
Men’s 500 Free Final
Yale’s Rob Harder knocked two-and-a-half seconds off of his prelims swim to post a 4:19.20 and take his first Ivy League title. That’s the third-fastest swim in the history of this Championship meet. His win put him ahead of 28-year old Columbia sophomore, and 2004 Austrian Olympian, Dominik Koll, who was a 4:20.62. With that swim, he creeps a little closer to the 1983 school record set in this race by one Tony Corsbisiero: a New York City and Columbia swimming legend.
Penn freshman Chris Swanson took 3rd in 4:21.82. Princeton’s Paul Nolle, the defending champion in the event, had a tough finals swim, adding 6 seconds from prelims to finish 8th in 4:32.05.
Dartmouth’s Jun Oh won the B-Final in 4:24.45.
Men’s 200 IM Final
In a battle between the elite breaststrokers in the conference’s history, it was no coincidence that the man with the fastest third leg took the title. Dartmouth’s Nejc Zupan won this 200 IM in 1:43.94, which breaks the Ivy League Record in the race by seven-tenths of a second, clearing the 1:44.6 swum by Geoff Rathgeber from Harvard in 2007.
That swim puts him 15th in the country this year. He’s already ranked 7th in the country in the 200 breaststroke, and so this swim will earn him a second NCAA invite.
Zupan had an outstanding breaststroke split of 28.99, but even leading up to that he had a half-second lead on the field after the butterfly and backstroke legs.
Princeton freshman Teo D’Alesandro, a former Bolles swimmer, took 2nd in 1:45.47, also clearing his own Pool Record from this morning. Harvard’s Chuck Katis was 3rd in 1:46.88, just out-touching another Princeton Rookie Byron Sanborn with a 1:46.93.
The 200 breaststroke later in the meet between Zupan and Katis really heats up after this swim; the two both rank in the top 10 in the country this season.
Men’s 50 Free Final
With Harvard Crimson sprinters all-around, Princeton’s Harrison Wagner pulled out a bit of an upset in this men’s 50 free despite being slower than he was in prelims. He was a 19.61, recovering from a slow start to edge-out defending champion Chris Satterthwaite of Harvard, who was 2nd in 19.67.
Harvard took the 2nd-through-4th place spots in this race, with Oliver Lee third in 19.79 and Griffin Schumacher 5th in 20.01. Along with Daniel Gosek, a sophomore from Columbia who was 5th in 20.07, each of these top 5 are underclassmen. This race could go an entirely different direction next season.
Paschall Davis, older brother of USC’s Maclin Davis, won the B-Final in 20.20.
Men’s 1 Meter Diving Final
These diving events are where Harvard and Princeton really separate themselves in this meet. They were already one-and-two in the team scoring, but with 6 of the top 8 finishers in this 1-meter diving final, the two teams really separated.
Harvard took the team lead thanks to a second-straight win by Michael Mosca with a score of 387.05, easily bettering both his score from last year and anybody else in the field. Princeton’s Stephen Vines took 2nd in 348.30.
Men’s 400 Medley Relay Final
Six relays were under the Pool Record in this race, but the top three teams came down to the wire separated by only three-tenths at the final touch. The race was not that close throughout, however. Harvard, using their three top sprinters plus Katis on the breaststroke, won in 3:12.18. They were the most balanced relay, though runners-up Dartmouth (3:12.32) and Princeton (3:12.48) had individual legs that were more explosive.
For Dartmouth, that was a 52.72 breaststroke split from Nejc Zupan, the winner already in the 200 IM; for Princeton that was Harrison Wagner with a 42.74 100 freestyle anchor.
Columbia took 4th in 3:15.00.
Live Meet Results available here.
Team Standings
Harvard took a 50-point lead over Princeton late in this session as the two teams pulled away from the pack, but Princeton certainly isn’t out of this meet this early, especially with events like the 100 breaststroke, the 100 fly, and the 200 free where Princeton is so deep.
1. Harvard Men’s Swimming 467
2. Princeton University Swimming 423
3. Columbia University 301
4. Yale University 295
5. Dartmouth College 219
6. University of Pennsylvania 201
7. Cornell University 165
8. Brown University 117