2015 Ivy League Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships
- Dates: Thursday, February 19 – Saturday, February 21, 2015; prelims 11am, finals 6pm
- Location: Blodgett Pool, Cambridge, Mass (Eastern Time Zone)
- Defending Champions: Harvard (results)
- Live Results: Available
- Live Video: Available
- Championship Central
The first morning of the 2015 Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships produced a few surprises, but overall things are going pretty much as we had expected. Harvard is out front, swimming and diving well in front of the home crowd. Princeton has made up ground on Yale, for whom this should have been the strongest day, while Penn has had the most upside of all eight teams.
Full prelims results are available here.
| Ivy League | Up | Mid | Down |
| Brown | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| Columbia | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Cornell | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Dartmouth | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Harvard | 10 | 6 | 0 |
| Penn | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| Princeton | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| Yale | 6 | 9 | 2 |
500 Freestyle
Yale dominated the 500 free, placing three in the A final and one each in B and C. Junior Eva Fabian (4:49.17) led the way, but freshman Cailley Silbert (4:49.22) was just behind the veteran thanks to a 6-second improvement from her seed time. Penn freshman Virginia Burns dropped 5 and qualified third (4:49.72). Harvard’s Ashlee Korsberg (4:50.23) and Sherry Liu (4:50.62) made it fourth and fifth, but they were the lone Crimson representatives in what could have been a more-stacked A final for the home team. Princeton only managed one championship finalist, freshman Claire McIlmail (4:50.82). Olivia Jameson (4:51.74) will be the third Bulldog to contend for the Ivy League title in tonight’s final, and will be joined by Dartmouth freshman AnnClaire MacArt (4:51.97).
Both Yale and Penn have become known for their distance prowess over the last several years, and it bore out in this first event. Yale’s up/mid/down haul was 3/1/1, while Penn’s was 1/3/2.
200 Individual Medley
As well as Yale performed in the 500 free, they lost ground to Princeton in the IM. Second-seeded Kina Zhou scratched in order to concentrate on her specialty, the 50 free, so Yale needed its other IMers to step in and fill the void. Still, two Bulldogs made the A final. This had been a tough event for Harvard last year, as they were shut out of the championship final. This time around the Crimson got two in, including top qualifier, freshman Geordie Enoch (2:00.90). Princeton’s Olivia Chan (2:01.81) and Sada Stewart (2:01.98) had strong morning swims, dropping a couple seconds each and qualifying second and third. The rest of tonight’s A final will consist of Yale’s Sydney Hirschi (2:02.24), Ellie Grimes from Penn (2:02.50), Stephanie Ferrell of Harvard (2:02.70), Danielle Liu of Yale (2:02.77), and Princeton’s Beverly Nguyen (2:02.96).
50 Freestyle
It was all the usual suspects qualifying for the A final of the 50 free with one glaring exception: Yale’s Zhou. She lost out by 3/100 to Brown’s Reia Tong (23.23), who qualified eighth. Princeton, Harvard and Cornell each picked up points over their psych sheet seedings. The Tigers’ Elizabeth McDonald (22.78) and Nikki Larson (22.83) qualified 1-2, followed by Cornell’s Jenna Immormino (22.99). Rochelle Dong (23.02) of Penn, Victoria Chan (23.12) of Harvard, Kate Dillione (23.13) from Brown, Columbia’s Christina Ray (23.18), and Tong will fill out the championship heat in tonight’s race.
1-Meter Diving
Harvard owned the diving. There’s just no other way to put it. The Crimson qualified five divers for tonight’s championship final round, including 3 freshmen (Hannah Allchurch, Jing Leung, and Alisha Mah). Princeton’s Caitlin Chambers and Yale’s Lilybet MacRae, each of whom won an Ivy title last year, qualified first and second with 289.35 and 284.65 points, respectively. Deborah Daly of Princeton and Harvard’s Elina Leiviska and Schuyler Moore will compete tonight as well.
Harvard just may have put themselves out of danger with their showing in diving. Princeton made a big bet on their divers, who, for the most part, were underwhelming. The good news for the Tigers is that their swimmers are staying ahead of Yale for the moment in the race for second place.
Tonight there will be two relays (200 free and 400 medley) to add excitement to the team score race. Follow our live Twitter feed on @swimswamlive
