Getting HYPed for the Princeton-Yale-Harvard Triangular Meet This Weekend

Excitement is building for the annual HYP rivalry. Archive photo from Yale Swimming and Diving on Facebook.

While other schools suit up, rest, and generally target the Big Three, Yale, Princeton and Harvard only have eyes for each other. The annual H-Y-P meet is the biggest of the regular season for each of the schools, and not only in swimming. Indeed, H-Y-P rivalries are fierce in most sports, and specific triangular competitions occur in cross country, crew, track & field, and although in a different format, in football.

This year’s H-Y-P swimming and diving meet is being hosted by Yale at the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool in New Haven. It is expected to draw a large crowd of former swimmers and families from all three teams, each cheering their school toward Big Three hegemony. In honor of the event, on Friday afternoon the Sterling Memorial Library is holding an open house of its exhibit on the history of men’s and women’s swimming and diving at Yale.

The women’s meet is likely to be very, very close this year. On the men’s side, although Yale has posted some strong swims so far this season, the crown is likely to be contested between Princeton and Harvard. Without trying to predict who will enter each event, and leaving diving out of the equation for a moment, here is a back-of-the-envelope calculation of how many top-16 swimmers each school could contribute to each event:

The men’s competition begins Friday, January 31 at 6:00 p.m. and continues on Saturday, February 1 at 12:00 noon. The women begin with diving on Saturday, February 1 at 3:30 p.m., followed by swimming at 6:00 p.m. They conclude on Sunday, February 2 at 9:45 a.m. (diving) and 12:00 noon (swimming). You can follow the meet here.