Princeton Men and Women Sweep Penn, Cornell at Home

WOMEN’S MEET

The Princeton women were victorious across the board today as they defeated Penn and Cornell in their annual tri meet, despite Penn winning eight of the twelve individual swimming events. Penn fell to the lady Tigers 166-134 while Cornell lost 213-87. However, the Quakers managed to defeat Cornell 200-166.

Penn kicked things off by winning the 200 medley relay a full second ahead of Princeton’s A team. The Quakers were led by a strong front half from Maria Jardeleza and Haley Wickham to claim the win in 1:43.23. Princeton fell second in 1:44.39 while Cornell touched third in 1:46.01.

Madison Visco turned in two winning performances for the Quakers in the 500 and 1000 free events. Visco held off Princeton’s Monica McGrath 10:14.22 to 10:14.36 to take the 1000 in a very tight race. In the 500, Visco triumphed over Cornell’s Micaela Luders to put up the only sub-5-minute race of the day. Visco’s 4:57.33 edged out Luders’ 5:00.08 and fellow Quaker Virginia Burns (5:00.44). Visco’s performances both rank her fourth in the Ivy League this year.

Cornell’s Jenna Immormino took the sprint queen title, winning the 50 free in 23.46 and the 100 free in 51.12. Immormino was followed closely by the Tigers in both races, touching out Madelyn Veith (23.59) in the 50 and Nikki Larson (51.34) in the 100. Immormino’s back-to-back season bests now rank her second and third in the league, respectively. Larson was victorious in the 200 free, winning the event in 1:50.65 with teammate Isabel Reis (1:51.36) close behind. Notably, Visco of Penn threw down a strong 1:51.84 for third only minutes after winning the 1000.

Reis came back with a vengeance to win the 200 fly in 2:01.81 over Penn’s Nancy Hu (2:02.22). Reis now holds the top two times in the league this year. The 100 fly, however, belonged to Penn’s Rochelle Dong who nearly broke 55 to beat Princeton’s Larson. Dong’s 55.05 usurps Harvard’s Kendall Crawford for the top spot in the league rankings.

Penn touched one-three in the 100 back with Rochelle Dong taking another win in 55.82. Cornell’s Helen Hsu got to the wall a mere hundredth of a second before Penn’s Maria Jardeleza, registering a 56.42 for second place. The 200 back was all Princeton, however, as Lindsay Temple and Joanna Curry nabbed the top two spots in 2:01.61 and 2:02.92.

Haley Wickham of Penn chopped four seconds off her season best in the 100 breast to dominate the event in 1:03.21 over Princeton’s Olivia Chan. Wickham was also victorious in the 200 breast over her teammate Sydney Tan, who made up nearly two seconds on the back half. The two were the only swimmers to break the 2:20 mark, clocking in at 2:19.51 and 2:19.96. Wickham now leads the league in both breaststroke disciplines.

The final individual event of the night came down to Penn’s Carter Orth and Princeton’s Olivia Chan. Orth ended up taking the 200 IM win in 2:05.09, passing Chan the final 50 to barely get her hand on the wall first. Chan finished in a time of 2:05.29. The two now hold the second and third fastest times in the league.

Princeton took both diving events with Lisa Li winning the three-meter with 284.15 points and Carolyn MacFarlane winning the one-meter with 267.40 points.

MEN’S MEET

Both Cornell and Penn fell to Princeton on the men’s side, with the Penn Quakers picking up a win over Cornell. Princeton beat Cornell 234-64 and defeated Penn 173-124.5. Penn topped Cornell with a score of 217-83.

Princeton started off strong with an impressive one-two finish in the 200 medley relay. The team of En-Wei Hu-Van Wright, Byron Sanborn, Ben Schafer, and Julian Mackrel raced to the wall to touch in a season best of 1:29.22. The A relay took off after a 24.72 breaststroke split from Sanborn and never looked back. The Princeton B relay narrowly held off a charging Eric Schultz to touch out Penn by three hundredths, beating them 1:30.98 to 1:31.01. Cornell’s A relay finished fourth in 1:31.64. The Tigers later had the same  success in the 400 free relay, taking first and second over Penn’s A team. The winning Princeton team was the only relay to break three minutes, touching in 2:58.53.

Penn retaliated in the 1000 free, claiming the top two finishers in Alex Peterson and Taylor Uselis. The pair registered season bests of 9:15.30 and 9:20.30 to jump to fourth and fifth in the conference rankings. Sam Smiddy of Princeton finished third in 9:23.93. Smiddy had his revenge in the 500, however, where a stellar last 100 led him to victory over Peterson, 4:30.06 to 4:31.69. Uselis raced home for third in 4:32.12.

Teo D’Allesandro secured a victory for the Tigers in the 200 free, throwing down a strong back half to win over Penn’s Kevin Su. D’Allesandro finished in 1:38.13 while Su touched just behind in a lifetime best of 1:39.09. With those swims, D’Allesandro and Su head into invitational season with the first and second fastest times in the league. Penn freshman Thomas Dillinger was the only other entrant under 1:40, hitting the wall in 1:39.92.

Hu-Van Wright had an exceptional day for the Tigers, winning both the 100 back and 100 free. Wright’s lifetime best of 47.73 in the 100 back places him at the top of the conference and also moves him up to 14th in the national rankings. Princeton swept the event thanks to sub-50 second performances from Andrew Helber and Alex Lewis.

Hu-Van Wright returned to win the 100 free in a tight race over Penn’s Eric Schultz, nabbing him at the finish 44.37 to 44.68. Hu-Van Wright fell just short of his conference-leading time of 44.19 from the Penn State Invitational, while Schultz’s performance bumps him to second in the league. Princeton’s D’Allesandro touched third in 45.05 and now sits just behind Schultz in the league rankings. Schultz managed to claim a win for the Quakers in the 50, swimming a season best of 20.40 to touch out Mackrel of Princeton (20.65).

In a tight 100 breaststroke field that featured six swimmers under the 57 second mark, Byron Sanborn of Princeton came up victorious with a time of 55.56. Sanborn was followed closely by Victor Luo of Cornell (56.16). Both athletes fell short of Luo’s conference-leading 55.49 but Sanborn’s swim was enough to bump him from fifth to second in the league, now sitting just behind Luo.

Sanborn returned for a second win in the 200 breast, but not without a challenge; in fact, Sanborn ended up tying Penn’s Wes Thomas for the victory. The duo finished with a time of 2:02.56, holding off a fast finish from Luo (2:02.75). Also in the mix was Penn’s Cole Hurwitz who touched fourth in 2:02.83. Thomas and Sanborn are now tied for fourth in the league, which is led by Luo’s 2:01.65.

Princeton also won the butterfly events thanks to Ben Schafer and Corey Okubo. Schafer’s 49.14 beat out Penn’s Mike Wen (49.74) by over half a second while Okubo ran down teammate Cole Buese to win the 200 fly in 1:47.78. Buese touched a half second back in 1:48.27 while Marco Bove completed the sweep for the Tigers with a 1:49.51. Buese still retains his league best time of 1:47.62 despite Okubo’s quick swim.

Okubo picked up a second win by heading the 200 back field, once again touching out Buese 1:47.12 to 1:47.40. Both times fall just short of Buese’s league leading 1:47.03. Grant Proctor of Penn also squeezed under 1:50 to touch third in 1:49.52. Penn fired off a one-two punch in the 200 IM with Mark Andrew and Thomas Dillinger leading the pack. Andrew narrowly claimed the win, touching in 1:49.93 to Dillinger’s 1:50.10.

Andrew Bologna secured a victory for the Quakers with his score of 300.40 in the three-meter diving event. Noam Altman-Kurosaki of Princeton won the one-meter with 271.45 points.

Princeton returns to the pool on December 4th where they will be hosting the annual Big Al invitational. The Quakers will head to Ohio on December 3rd for Kenyon’s Total Performance Invite while Cornell is set to compete in Ithaca College’s Bomber Invitational beginning December 4th.

Full meet results can be found here.