The Ivy League is not a conference as deep as the SEC, for example. Both conferences though, are scoring to C-Finals this year, and the result for the Ivies were an extreme swing in scoring. Harvard started out the meet in the lead, but Princeton finished the session very strong to hold a slight margin headed into the final day.
Men’s 200 Medley Relay Final
The Princeton men weren’t the top seed coming into this 200 medley relay, but they finished with a 1:26.25 for both the win and a qualification for the NCAA Championships. They actually led this race wire-to-wire, though the really exciting split was an 18.68 anchor from Harrison Wagner on a near-perfect reaction.
Harvard took 2nd in 1:27.47; sophomore Chuck Katis split a 23.93 on the breaststroke leg for them. Dartmouth was 3rd in 1:27.80
Men’s 1000 Free Final
This is an often overlooked race at the Ivy League Championships, but there are still a heap of points to give out, and the race allowed Harvard to nearly double their lead from 46 points to 91 points.
The win went to Rob Harder in 9:01.36, after he overcame Penn’s Chris Swanson (9:01.40) in the last 25 yards.
Harvard’s Steven Kekeacs placed 3rd in 9:03.95, and though they didn’t win, a 3-7-8-10 finish was still enough to overwhelm Princeton in scoring.
Men’s 400 IM Final
Nejc Zupan did well once again, just as he did in the 200 IM, to conserve his energy in prelims only to explode in finals with a 3:44.39 for his second Ivy League title and record of the meet.
Harvard freshman Christian Carbone (3:48.77) was the runner-up, and actually split about the same as Zupan on the breaststroke: both swimmers’ best leg. The difference was that Zupan split his 1:02.5 there after a much better front-half: around four-seconds better.
Princeton’s Daniel Hasler moved up a few spots to touch 3rd in 3:49.71, with Columbia’s Kevin Quinn 4th in 3:50.89.
Men’s 100 Fly Final
Tommy Glenn needed only a few-tenths of a second drop to ensure himself of a second-straight NCAA berth, but Glenn did much more than that. He dropped a full second (nine-tenths off of his season best) for a 45.80. That ranks him third in the country this year: the highest ranking of any Ivy League swimmer this season to date.
In the least, that swim shakes up the NCAA qualifying picture for a lot of bubble swimmers. If he can repeat it in three weeks, it could be big points for the Bears at nationals as well. This marks his second-straight Ivy League title in the event.
Columbia’s David Jakl took 2nd in 46.96, and Yale’s Mike Dominski was 3rd in 47.82. Princeton, including B-final winner Michael Strand (47.87), pulled off a tie in the event for Harvard, which is much better than they did in the next race.
Men’s 200 Free Final
Harvard picked up big points in the men’s 200 free when Chris Satterthwaite had a huge, two-second drop from prelims to win in 1:35.00.
Satterthwaite tends downward toward the sprints, and Columbia’s Dominik Koll (the runner-up in 1:36.12) tends up toward the distance races. Ironically, though, it was Satterthwaite who pulled away on the second-half of this race after the two were in a dead-heat at the halfway mark.
Columbia’s John Wright led them both after 100 yards, but faded in the last 100 into 3rd with a 1:36.56.
Harvard continued to perform big as Zach Walters held his spot with a 1:37.05, while Princeton freshman Sandy Bole took 5th in 1:37.33. After this race, Harvard took over a 150-point lead as the meet passed its halfway point. Princeton wouldn’t panic though, as they knew that they had two very strong events coming up.
Men’s 100 Breast Final
Harvard knew that they would take a thumping coming into the finals of this 100 breaststroke, but they came away with about as positive of a result as possible. That was a win from sophomore Chuck Katis with a 53.90. That’s still far from his season-best, but he’s pretty clearly not tapered for this meet with his NCAA qualification sealed, so to win anyway will be a confidence booster for him.
Three of the next four finishers were all Princeton freshmen, with Byron Sanborn taking 2nd in 53.94; Teo D’Alessandro taking 4th in 54.45; and Jack Pohlmann finishing 5th in 54.68.
In between was another freshman, Penn’s Kyle Yu, in 3rd at 54.37.
Princeton took a big chunk out of Harvard’s lead in this race, leaving it sitting at about 100 points. With 32 points going for winners, and working down from there, that is not quite as big of a lead as it seems like.
Men’s 100 Back Final
This was show-time for Princeton. Harvard didn’t even enter a swimmer in this 100 backstroke, whereas Princeton put four in the A-final and one in the B. The result is a 100-point deficit suddenly turned into a 13-point lead.
That was led by a 47.43 victory from Michael Strand, who already was the winner of the B-Final in the 100 fly earlier in the evening.
Dartmouth’s James Verhagen was 2nd in 47.55, and Yale’s Mike Dominski was 3rd in 48.02. Volumbia freshman Omar Arafa was 4th in 48.03.
Princeton took the next three spots, from En-Wei Hu-Van Wright (48.03), Connor Maher (48.49), and Kaspar Raigla (48.73).
Men’s 800 Free Relay Final
On paper, Princeton was a heavy favorite in this 800 free relay. In reality, it took a clutch anchor leg from freshman Sandy Bole, one of three freshmen on this relay, in 1:36.04 for a narrow victory in 6:26.87
Columbia got a big anchor of their own from Dominik Koll (1:35.29), including a 46.36 front-half. He came up just short of a huge comeback and the lions finished 2nd in a 6:27.32. Harvard took 3rd in 6:27.51, and they had the best anchor of them all, with a 1:34.95 from individual champion Satterthwaite.
Full, live meet results available here.
Team Standings After Day 2 (of 3)
What an ending to day 2 of the 2013 Ivy League Championships. Arguably, both Harvard and Princeton built some serious momentum on day two of this meet with good swims. Princeton will feel very good mentally, however, with their small, 23-point lead, though that amounts to only slightly better than a dead-heat.
In the final day of events, Princeton has a lead in the 200 back; Harvard has a lead in the 100 free, though it’s not as big as you might imagine. The 200 breast should go Princeton’s way on depth (a Zupan win in the 200 breast would be big for the Tigers), and Harvard should be a little better on the 200 fly. Diving will be close to a wash, leaving just the 400 free relay. The victory in this meet is going to come down to the wire; it’s hard to call single-digits in a meet with as many variables as this, but that’s kind of where things are lining up for.
1. Princeton University 972
2. Harvard University 949
3. Columbia University 756
4. Yale University 719.5
5. Dartmouth College 534
6. University of Pennsylvania 478
7. Brown University 404.5
8. Cornell University 331