Every year, the eight schools in the Ivy League participate in a competition for the “Dual-Meet Champions” which is awarded to the school with the best in conference record across all the dual meets.
This championship is different from the conference titles, and frequently goes to a different team than the one that wins the Ivy League Team Title at the conference meet in February. Last year, the overall conference titles went to Princeton with both the men’s and women’s teams scoring the most points at the conference championships. The Princeton men also won the dual-meet title, but the women’s title went to the Harvard women with their perfect 7-0 record after they beat Princeton at the final meet of the Ivy dual season.
Last Year’s Standings
| Place | Women’s Teams | Men’s Teams |
| 1 | Harvard (7-0) | Princeton (7-0) |
| 2 | Princeton (6-1) | Yale (6-1) |
| 3 | Yale (6-2) | Harvard (5-2) |
| 4 | Brown (4-3) | Cornell (4-3) |
| 5 | Penn (3-4) | Columbia (3-4) |
| 6 | Columbia (2-5) | Brown (2-5) |
| 7 | Dartmouth (1-6) | Penn (1-6) |
| 8 | Cornell (0-8) | Dartmouth (0-7) |
Each Ivy team will race every other team at some point in the season, with the meets concluding at the beginning of February when Harvard, Princeton, and Yale meet for their annual HYP meet. Typically, the winner of this meet wins the overall dual meet title.
This format allows multiple teams, sometimes, to walk home with titles to show for the season, and coaches of winning programs earn bonuses for their efforts. These wins can help promote the program to the powers that be within athletics departments, and, with the uncertainty around college swimming, we could see more conferences follow the lead of the Ivy League. Focusing on a dual meet competition within their conference could help make their programs more appealing to athletics departments and prevent the program cuts we have seen recently.
We are one week into the Ivy dual season, with the women’s teams for Brown and Harvard racing on Friday and the women’s teams for Brown and Yale racing on Saturday. Ultimately, Harvard beat Brown, scoring 172 points to the Bears’ 71 and Brown beat Yale 160-140.
That means the current standings have Harvard on top with their 1-0 Ivy Record, Brown in 2nd at 1-1, and Yale in 3rd at 0-1.
In the past, it has taken an undefeated Ivy season to win the title with the last 15 winners on the women’s side all being undefeated. The men’s competition has a little more wiggle room with the 2024 winners (Harvard and Princeton) finishing tied at 6-1, and the 2016 winner (Princeton) coming in at 3-1.
2025-26 Ivy Dual Meet Schedule
October
- 31st
- Harvard (W) vs Brown (W): Harvard W
November
- 1st
- Brown (W) vs Yale (W): Brown W
- 7th-8th
- Penn vs Columbia (8th)
- Princeton vs Brown vs Dartmouth (7th-8th)
- 13th-15th
- Brown (M) vs Yale (M) (13th)
- Princeton (M) vs Columbia (M) (14th)
- Columbia (W) vs Yale (W) (14th)
- Columbia (M) vs Yale (M) (15th)
- Brown vs Penn (15th)
- Dartmouth vs Harvard vs Cornell (14th-15th)
- 21st-22nd
- Harvard vs Columbia (21st)
- Princeton vs Cornell vs Penn (21st-22nd)
December
- 4th-7th
- Princeton (W) vs Columbia (W)**
January
- 9th-10th
- Harvard (M) vs Brown (M) (10th)
- Yale vs Penn vs Dartmouth (9th-10th)
- 16th-17th
- Harvard vs Penn (17th)
- Brown vs Columbia (17th)
- Yale vs Cornell (16th-17th)
- 24th
- Columbia vs Cornell (24th)
- 30th-31st
- Dartmouth vs Columbia (31st)
- Harvard vs Yale vs Princeton (30th-31st)
- Brown vs Cornell (30th-31st)
**results scored via Big Al Invitational
This weekend will see a few big Ivy duals, and the start of the season on the men’s side, with Princeton, Brown, and Dartmouth meeting for a two day double dual at Dartmouth. Last year, Dartmouth finished 7th on the women’s side (1-6) and 8th on the men’s side (0-7). Brown’s women were 4th (4-3) and the men were 6th (2-5), and the Princeton women were 2nd (6-1) while the men were 1st (7-0).
We will also see Columbia and Penn meet in a two-day meet on Friday and Saturday. The women’s meet could be huge in determining final placements for these two teams with Penn finishing 5th last year (3-4) and Columbia finishing 6th (2-5). There was a bigger difference on the men’s side, but they were still close with Columbia finishing 5th (3-4) and Penn finishing 7th (1-6).
SwimSwam’s Predictions
The Princeton men’s and women’s teams are coming off very strong seasons at the Ivy League Championships, with both teams earning the overall team titles. With excellent recruiting classes coming in on both teams, it is hard to bet against them in the dual meet titles.
The Harvard women won last year, and they have the potential to do so again this year, starting the season off strong with a win against Brown on Halloween.
The Harvard and Yale men both retained a lot of their top swimmers from last year, but Yale is in a slightly better position on the returners side. Harvard brought in a very strong recruiting class, though, which could put them over the edge for the dual-meet rankings, after they finished 3rd last year.
Overall, Princeton looks like the favorites for the titles with Harvard and Yale as close 2nd and 3rd places.
The last time a team other than these three won was in 2014 when the Columbia women went 6-0 to beat Harvard.
Correction- brown women beat Yale women
Dont sleep on Penn this year😛 they hungry
The Ivy League is the best swimming conference in the country. Does the best job at maintaining rivalries and swimming every school. It’s special, the smartest and the fastest!
This is great to see some additional emphasis placed on the dual meets. I really like that all of the teams face conference opponents during the season. I know that can’t be replicated in all conferences but it seems to fit nicely with 8 teams in the same region.