Dean Farris Moves Up to #3 All-Time in 200y Free History

IVY LEAGUE  – MEN

• Wednesday, February 27 – Saturday, March 2
• Katherine Moran Aquatics Center, Brown University, Rhode Island (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champion: Harvard (2x)
• Live results
• Live Video: Thursday – Prelims | Finals; Friday – Prelims | Finals; Saturday – Prelims | Finals (Friday and Saturday links coming soon)
• Championship Central

Harvard junior Dean Farris swam the 7th-fastest 200 free in history on Friday at the 2019 Ivy League Championships. His 1:30.83 on Friday evening breaks his own Ivy league record of 1:30.83, set at this same meet last  year, and pushes him from the 5th-fastest all-time performer to 3rd.

5 Fastest Swimmers in History, Men’s 200 Yard Freestyle:

1. Townley Haas – 1:29.50
2. Blake Pieroni – 1:29.63
3. Dean Farris – 1:30.83
4. Andrew Seliskar – 1:30.86
5. Dylan Carter – 1:30.95

That swim follows a 1:30.22 relay anchor that he swam on Havard’s 800 free relay on Wednesday that is the fastest non-flat-start relay split in history.

Farris pulled off a double individually on Friday, also winning the 100 backstroke in 45.48 – a new Pool Record, but short of his Ivy League Meet Record of 44.81 from last season.

Farris then lead off Harvard’s 400 medley relay, on his 5th swim of the day, with a 45.09 – beating his time from the individual race. He combined with Daniel Chang (53.72), Umit Gures (46.46), and Raphael Marcoux (42.40) to win in a new Pool Record time of 3:07.67. That’s also an NCAA “A” cut.

Continuing another through-line of this year’s Ivy League Championships, another freshman picked up a win on Friday after Princeton’s Raunak Khosla broke the league record in the 200 IM on Thursday.

This time, It was Harvard freshman Umit Gures who came away with the win, swimming 45.58 in the men’s 100 fly. Leading a freshman 1-2 with Columbia’s Jonas Kistorp (46.26), Gures is now the fastest freshman in the country in the event.

Other Day 3 Results:

• Penn senior Mark Andrew lost his bed at a 200 IM 3-peat on Thursday, but on Friday it was redemption time, as he completed a successful 4-peat of the 400 IM. He becomes just the 2nd 4-time champion in the event in Ivy League history, which dates back to 1939 (though there was no 400 IM at Ivies from 1949 to 1963). The other was Harvard’s Dan Schevchik, who won 4 straight from 2000-2003. In total, only 11 other swimmers have 4-peated in Ivy men’s swimming & diving history in any event. In the process, Andrew broke his own Ivy Meet Record of 3:41.95 set at last year’s meet.
• Princeton juniors went 1-2 in the men’s 100 breaststroke, led by Derek Cox in 53.30. Daniel Arris finished 2nd in 53.64. Those 2 led the race virtually wire-to-wire, providing a big boost for the Tigers to extend their lead for 2nd past Penn.
• Harvard’s Brennan Novak defended his Ivy League title in the men’s 1000 yard free, swimming 8:47.78. That broke Chris Swanson’s Pool Record, but was 8-tenths shy of breaking his own Meet Record set last year. While the 1000 is not a scoring event at the NCAA Division I Championships, the Ivy League has included the race in its championship since 1994.

Team Scores After Day 3

After 3 days of competition, the Harvard men have a nearly-runaway margin of victory over 2nd-place Princeton, leading by 231 points. They’d need a big final day to match last year’s 345-point margin of victory, while 2017’s 370-point margin is probably out-of-reach.

A big day for Princeton took a 12-point deficit to Penn and turned it into a 44-point lead inn the battle for 2nd.

1. Harvard – 1015.5
2. Princeton – 774.5
3. Penn – 730.5
4. Yale – 692
5. Columbia – 672
6. Brown – 596.5
7. Cornell – 479.5
8. Dartmouth – 301.5