A magical season for the Princeton men’s swimming and diving team, which reclaimed the Ivy League title during a dominant three-day performance at the Ivy League Championships in DeNunzio Pool, ended Thursday at the NCAA Championships.
Princeton had to default its two individual qualifiers at the NCAA Championships, including senior Harrison Wagner, a two-time individual Ivy League champion. The 2015 Ivy champion in the 50 free, Wagner spent time in the hospital Wednesday night due to illness and simply wasn’t able to compete in Iowa City.
“Harrison came down with a fever and was fighting an illness for the better part of the week,” assistant coach Mitch Dalton said. “We were staying optimistic his health would pick up; however, after a trip to the hospital last night, it became clear that was not likely.”
Freshman Corey Okubo also qualified for the meet after breaking the Ivy League record in the 400 IM, but he was forced to default due to a miscommunication about the start time for his 200 IM preliminary Thursday morning. Without any individual qualifiers remaining in the competition, Princeton will be unable to compete in any relays for the remainder of the weekend.
“We have a saying on our team that organization is the key to success,” Dalton said. “With that being said, as a coach I take responsibility for this miscommunication. While the past 48 hours have been extremely tough for our team, I am blown away by their maturity, positivity and camaraderie they have displayed in such difficult moments. We win as a team, we struggle as a team and we will get through this as a team.
“While there is no doubt this is a disappointing set of events, I am proud of our men for the way in which they have handled this. I know they will be eager to get back in the water and channel this toward some good spring training and summer long course season.”
Press release courtesy: Princeton Tigers
You know what the Princeton dummies are going to one day call you, Salt? Hired help.
This is just a sad situation. I hate reading the mean comments. Those kids work really hard and it was a one time unfortunate error. The Princeton boys swam out of their mind at Ivies’s and we were all looking forward to seeing them succeed at NCAA’s. Although our teams compete during the year, at NCAA’s the boys cheer each other on. Time to move on, take a break and hit the pool for another fabulous season.(even though I am still rooting Harvard to win Ivies in 2016 🙂 ) !
What does “miscommunication” mean? Princeton should clarify what happened here. Their statement just raises questions about what happened, who was responsible, and how to avoid a screw up going forward.
If people don’t like a rule, then seek to change it. But it is the rule place now.
How do you not know what time your race will be held at the NCAA Championships? Age group swimmers are taught to check what time their race is at and to be responsible for knowing when their race is. While it is too bad that this is the rule, athletes at the NCAA Championship level need to be responsible for looking at the heat sheet, knowing the order of events, and knowing when their race will be!
Ironic that the 200 IM was basically a tune-up race for Okubo. He is a legit scoring threat in the 400 IM and 200 fly, but he didn’t even swim the 200 IM at Ivies.
I don’t see how missing a race is any worse than showing up and going 1:55.
Even dumber that all their relays automatically get DQed.
Stupid technicalities! Me no like 🙁
Hey they should let them all time trial their events to make up for their DQ. Princeton has had a great season and the fans would all love to see what they can do. I don’t see any harm in it as long as they’re not scoring. Or is that against the rule too?
So they should be given a trophy for even NOT participating, too?
Rules are rules and consequences are consequences. It’s a pretty simple rule, and swimmers/coaches at this level just should flat out not be violating it. Sorry, they royally screwed up, but now they have to face the actual consequences. Man up and move on and hopefully learn from it.
The rule was broken. They’re disqualified, I agree. No trophies, points, anything official. They should just have an unofficial time trials.
What does “miscommunication” mean? There must be something more to it than the swimmer wasn’t able to read the heat sheet correctly. Swimmers miss races at all ages at all levels. It sucks that this is the rule, but it’s the rule.
Does anyone know why this rule is a rule? People scratch all the time, and it’s obviously nice for the meet officials/workers to know that a swimmer won’t be swimming, but I don’t think it gives a swimmer an advantage.
I’m guessing it’s in part because if they allowed it then others would take advantage of it for various reasons and you’d end up with empty lanes and a slower meet. Probably less likely but a sneaky coach could pretend to enter a swimmer to try influence other coach’s decisions about relays, etc., and then have the swimmer just not show up. Seems like it would be really messy all around.
Weird rule………You would think that the Princeton coaching staff would have had this under control. I mean it’s Princeton and are not they smarter than the rest of us “normal” folks……
Anyone know who the meet announcer is?
You clearly don’t have to be that smart to get in to or work at Princeton
Evidently……..
Yes that’s correct, Princeton is continually ranked the #1 university in the nation because a bunch of dummies go there.
First and foremost, even the anti-Princeton contingent in the larger swimming world has to feel somewhat badly for Corey and his teammates. Try to set jealousy aside and realize that these young men worked very hard to get to NCAA’s (and did so immersed in one of the most difficult academic institutions in the world) and had to deal with having this experience taken away from them (or slip away for whatever reason).
Clearly you’re not as smart as you can’t even form a complete sentence. Why don’t you go somewhere else and stop trying to make your life worth something by putting down a person that made 1 mistake. #growup
hmm… “normal” folk? Really?! Look, they made a mistake because they’re human. Maybe you should just enjoy the rest of the meet, stop criticizing other people’s mistakes, and ask yourself why you have such unresolved self esteem issues.