Notre Dame Takes 3 Team Wins, 2 ACC Swimmers of the Week in Dual Meet vs Princeton vs Navy

#13 Notre Dame Men and NR Notre Dame Women vs NR Princeton vs NR Navy

• Rolfs Aquatic Center – Notre Dame, South Bend, IN, USA
• January 12-13, 2024
• Short Course Yards (25 yards), Dual Meet- long format
• Full Meet Results (PDF)
• Final Team Scores
  • Women
    • Princeton def. Notre Dame 187-166 
    • Princeton def. US Naval Academy 295-58
    • Notre Dame def. US Naval Academy 291-62
  • Men
    • #13 Notre Dame def. Princeton 218-135 (Exhibition Added)
    • #13 Notre Dame def. US Naval Academy 219-134 (Exhibition Added)
    • Princeton def. US Naval Academy 199-154

Notre Dame men dominated both of their dual meets over Navy and Princeton January 12-13, and the Princeton women prevailed over the Fighting Irish and Navy. Though Notre Dame women did not win in the final tally against Princeton, they picked up a win against Navy.

Women’s Meet

• Princeton def. Notre Dame 187-166 
• Princeton def. Navy 295-58
• Notre Dame def. Navy 291-62

Madelyn Christman, a junior for the Fighting Irish, showed up to win, throwing down several impressive relay splits and sweeping both of the backstrokes to earn her first ACC Swimmer of the Week honor. Her most impressive swim was the 200 BK, where she not only dominated the field by over three seconds, but she also lobbed a few tenths off of her 1:54.45 best time from ACC’s last year, going 1:54.07. That time would have earned 8th place at ACC’s last spring.

The 100 BK was a much tighter race for Christman, her 52.78 barely edging out fellow teammate Jess Geriane’s 52.94. 

Christman put up a fiery 21.78 on the 200 freestyle relay and 21.81 on the anchor leg of the 200 medley, aiding in her team’s sweep of the 200 relays. 

But despite Christman’s efforts, the Princeton women were too dominant, taking 9 individual golds and gold in both of the 400 relays.

Princeton flexed their freestyle dominance, sweeping all of the freestyle events, save for the 1000. Leading those efforts were sophomore Sabrina Johnston and senior Ellie Marquardt who each picked up a pair of wins. Johnston, took gold in both the sprint freestyles and notched new best times on her relay lead-offs: a quick 22.30 in the 50 FR and a 48.84 in the 100 FR. 

Marquardt edged out a ND swimmer in both of her races, swimming a 1:46.69 for gold in the 200 FR and a 4:45.66 for gold in the 500 FR.

Senior Margaux McDonald and sophomore Heidi Smithwick also aided in the flurry of golds for the Tigers, picking up a pair of wins each. McDonald placed 1st in the 100 BR, taking off nearly half a second from her best time, going from a 1:01.22 to a 1:00.77. In the 200 IM, she took gold in 2:00.15, followed by three of her teammates to go 1-2-3-4. 

Smithwick swept both butterflys, beating the field by around a second in both events. She dropped a best time in the 200 Fly, a speedy 1:56.53–that time is over 3 seconds faster than her 1:59.67 from Ivy’s last year. 

Other Meet Highlights:

• Dakota Tucker, a freshman from South Africa, posted an impressive 4:07.50 in the 400 IM. Not only was it only her fourth time swimming that event in yards, but that time would have also made the NCAA B final last year.

Men’s Meet

• #13 Notre Dame def. Princeton 218-135 (Exhibition Added)
• #13 Notre Dame def. Navy 219-134 (Exhibition Added)
• Princeton def. Navy 199-154

Chris Guiliano, a junior for ND, earned his third ACC Swimmer of the Week this season with a sweep of the sprint freestyles, punching a 19.55 in the 50 and a 41.84 in the 100 FR. Guiliano has been turning heads all season, having already swam best times in the 50 FR (18.84), 100 FR (41.23), and 200 FR (1:32.08) at the Ohio State Invitational in November. That 100 free time would have taken him from 3rd to 1st at last year’s ACC’s.

Guiliano has been training with a new teammate this year–the reigning 50 FR ACC Champion, Abdelrahman Elaraby, a fifth year transfer from Louisville. Elaraby took 2nd in the 50 and 3rd in the 100 FR and has been steadily improving since his arrival to Notre Dame this past fall. 

The rapid improvement of Guiliano, along with the addition of Elaraby, means the Fighting Irish will have a lot of point potential in the sprint events at ACC’s this spring–especially on relays.

And not only did the Irish sweep all four relays, but their A and B 200 free relays saw 8 men go sub-20 seconds. And 7 out of those 8 splits were all over a tenth faster than ND’s slowest leg in the 200 free relay at ACC’s last year. With that amount of sprint depth to pull from and standouts like Guiliano and Elaraby, ND may very well be in the running to win the 200 free relay at ACC’s this year.

The two medley relay sweeps were led by sophomore Tommy Janton, who also swept both backstrokes with a 46.10 100 BK and a 1:41.85 200 BK.

Other Meet Highlights:

• Princeton Sophomore Mitchell Schott picked up a pair of wins at this meet in the 500 and 200 freestyle. His 1:33.40 200 FR was a best time, along with his 9:10.00 1000 FR, which secured second place behind senior teammate John Ehling who went 9:07.55. 
• Navy went 1-2-3-4 in the 100 Breaststroke, with Juan Mora leading the pack with a 52.94.
• Noah Sech, a Freshman for Princeton, took 1st in the 400 IM with a 3:50.03 with teammates trailing behind for 2nd and 3rd.