Princeton’s Buese Closes Big Al Invite with Successful Day 3 Double

2016 BIG AL INVITATIONAL

• Full Results
• Hosted by Princeton University
• Thursday, November 10th-Saturday, November 12th
• 25 yards
• Invite format

On the final day of competition at the 2016 Big Al Invitational, Princeton’s Cole Buese brought in 2 more individual victories in fron of the home crowd. His first win came in the 200 back, where he dominated the field with his 1:48.08, winning y over 3 seconds. Buese returned to the pool for the 200 fly, clocking a 1:50.49 to win by an even larger margin in his 2nd victory of the day.

UConn sophomore Mark Hunter went up against Princeton freshman Derek Cox, stopping the Tigers from sweeping the day 3 events with his victory. Hunter won the race in 2:04.95 after making a big final 50 comeback. Cox wound up in 2nd place, touching narrowly behind with his 2:05.56.

On the women’s side, Princeton freshmen Christie Chong and Gianna Garcia were at it again, swimming to a 1-2 finish for the Tigers in the 200 back. This time, it was Chong who got to the wall first, winning the race in 2:00.22. Garcia followed with a 2:02.32 for 2nd ahead of Fordham freshman Cat Alabanza (2:03.48).

In the 200 fly, Fordham freshman Mia Bullock went head-to-head with Princeton’s Garcia. The two swimmers were within a couple tenths of each other at the 100, but Bullock started to break ahead on the back half, winning in 2:01.53. Garcia held on for another 2nd place finish with a 2:03.00.

Lehigh’s Kaitlyn Ruffing completed her sweep of the sprint freestyles with a victory in today’s 100 free. Ruffing built her lead over the field to nearly 1.5 seconds, winning in 51.11.

PRESS RELEASE – PRINCETON:

The Princeton men’s and women’s swimming and diving team don’t get many opportunities to swim at home this season, so both made the most of their chance this weekend. Both teams dominated the fields in the annual Big Al Open, winning a high majority of the individual events and all of the relays during their final competitions before opening their respective Ivy League seasons.

WOMEN

Head coach Susan Teeter and her squad got its home season off to an impressive start Friday, as the quartet of Isabel Reis, Maddy Veith, Claire McIlmail and Kathleen Mulligan claimed victory in the 200 free in 1:34.90.

Sophomore Monica McGrath followed her win in Miami last weekend by taking the 500 free in 4:55.22, while classmate Joanna Curry barely edged a Connecticut swimmer for second in 5:00.77.

Freshman Christie Chong took the 200 IM in 2:04.24, though the most impressive aspect of the race was that Princeton took each of the top seven spots. Two more freshmen, Gianna Garcia and Elaine Zhou, joined Reis and Veith to win the 400 medley relay in 3:49.34. Garcia then led off the winning 200 medley relay; she teamed with Olivia Chan, Elsa Welshofer and Veith to win in 1:45.75.

Reis picked up an individual win in the 400 IM (4:28.30), while Garcia added a win of her own (100 fly, 56.02) to her two relay wins. McGrath (200 free, 1:52.67) was the first Tiger to double, though Garcia (100 back, 55.58) wasn’t far behind, and Shaelyn Choi (100 breast, 1:05.54) became the third Princeton freshman to earn a win in their DeNunzio debut weekend.

The 800 free relay of Reis, McIlmail, Lindsay Temple and McGrath won in 7:37.49, and McGrath followed with her third win of the weekend in the mile (17:02.15). Chong (200 back, 2:00.22) and Choi (200 breast, 2:20.12) added Princeton individual wins in the final session, while McIlmail, Reis, McGrath and Veith won the 400 free relay in 3:30.33.

Freshman Natasha MacManus was Princeton’s top finisher on the 1-meter board (3rd, 261.90), while sophomore Carolyn MacFarlane had the edge on the 3-meter board (3rd, 287.40).

MEN

Like the women, the Tiger men opened with a strong relay performance. The quartet of Christian Feiler, Julian Mackrel, Tyler Lin, and Alexander Lewis gave Princeton a win in 1:22.27; Mackrel and Lewis were part of Princeton’s 2016 All-America performance in the same relay.

Sophomore Cole Buese (4:31.09) topped classmate Murphy McQuet (4:31.75) in an exciting 500 free, while two-year NCAA qualifier Corey Okubo won the 200 IM in 1:51.84. Mackrel followed by taking the 50 free in 20.62, and then he teamed with Lewis, freshman Derek Cox and junior Ben Schafer to win the 400 medley relay in 3:21.52 to close Friday’s portion of the swimming.

That same quartet opened Saturday by winning the 200 medley relay in 1:31.62, while Okubo topped the 400 IM field by more than six seconds to win in 3:59.54. Cox became the first member of the men’s Class of 2020 to grab an individual win (100 fly, 49.42), and he quickly followed with a 100 breast win in 56.98. Buese posted a 200 free win in 1:39.29, and then he anchored the 800 free relay (Schafer, McQuet and Zach Buerger) to a victory in 6:46.35.

McQuet kept Princeton’s dominance in the distance events intact with a victory in the mile (15:51.43), while Buese claimed his third weekend win in the 200 back (1:48.08). Mackrel won the 100 free in 45.56, and Buese made it 4-for-4 by winning the 200 fly in 1:50.49.  Buese, Mackrel, Schafer and Lewis closed out the swimming by winning the 400 free relay in 3:01.36.

Senior Nathan Makarewicz gave new Princeton diving coach Drew Livingston his first two home wins; he won the 1-meter event with 309.65 points, and he took the 3-meter with 323.60 points.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will head to Ithaca next weekend to open their Ivy League seasons in tri-meets with both Penn and Cornell.