2024 Women’s Ivy Championships: Day 3 Up/Mid/Downs: Princeton Still Leads, but It’s Tighter

2024 Ivy League Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships

• Wednesday, February 21 – Saturday, February 24, 2024
• Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center, Providence, RI
• Defending Champions:
  • Women: Princeton (1x)
• Championship Central
• Fan Guide
• Pre-scratch Psych Sheet
• Live Results
• Live Video
• Recaps
  • Day 1 Finals
  • Day 2 Prelims ׀ Day 2 Finals
  • Day 3 Prelims

FRIDAY NIGHT HEAT SHEETS

For those unfamiliar with swimming terminology, the concept of “Ups” and “Downs” is a good way to track which teams performed best at prelims. In prelims, swimmers qualify for one of three finals heats: the top 8 finishers make the A final, places 9 through 16 the B final and places 17 through 24 the C final. In finals, swimmers are locked into their respective final, meaning a swimmer in the B heat (spots 9-16) can only place as high as 9th or as low as 16th, even if they put up the fastest or slowest time of any heat in the final.

With that in mind, we’ll be tracking “Ups,” “Mids” and “Downs” after each prelims session. “Up” refers to swimmers and divers in the A final, “Mid” to B finalists, and “Down” to C finalists.

Scores After Day 2

1. Princeton – 523
2. Harvard – 422.5
3. Yale – 417.5
4. Brown – 342.5
5. Penn – 302
6. Columbia – 261
7. Cornell – 224.5
8. Dartmouth – 197

Although Princeton was expected to dominate with their highest-scoring day on Friday, the Tigers had a surprisingly lackluster morning on Day 3. They missed their seedings by -20 points in the 100 fly, -14 in the 200 free, -6 in the 100 breast, and -28 in the 100 back. Yet thanks to their incredible depth, they still outscored the rest of the field and should remain comfortably in the lead tonight. But what was expected to be a 250-point winning margin has now been whittled down to an expected 125 points.

In all, Princeton was off -63 points from projections. Brown, too, had some misses this morning and finished down -19 points. Because scoring is a zero-sum game, where Princeton and Brown slipped, Columbia (+39), Yale (+36), and Harvard (+31) took advantage with some great swims.

Harvard led all teams with 11 A finalists, 4 B finalists, and 6 C finalists. The Crimson earned 2 A-final spots in 100 fly, 400 IM, 200 free, and 100 breast and 3 in the 100 back. Moreover, they nabbed 5 spots in the A final of tomorrow’s 3-meter diving (prelims took place today but the event won’t be scored until finals on Saturday).

Yale had an outstanding morning, earning the top 2 spots in the 100 breast and another 4 entries in A finals. The Bulldogs are now expected to secure a third-place finish, although, with only a 20-point margin, there is still room for Brown to displace them. That battle is still active.

The rest of the teams seem to have slotted into their finishing order, with 100 or more points between them.

Day 3 Ups/Mids/Downs

Scoring Day 3 Prelims (plus 400 Medley Relay as seeded)

Projected Day 3 Scores