Dean Farris Anchors in 40.8, Hits 44.6 in 100 Back at HYP

Harvard-Yale-Princeton

• Friday-Saturday, February 2nd-3rd, 2019
• Blodgett Pool, Harvard University, Boston, MA
• 25 yards
• Double-Dual Format
• Men’s Results
• Women’s Results
• Scores
  • Men: Harvard 266, Yale 87; Harvard 216, Princeton 137; Princeton 237, Yale 116
  • Women: Yale 186, Princeton 114; Yale 182.50, Harvard 117.50; Harvard 182, Princeton 118

Men’s Recap

The Harvard men easily defeated longtime rivals Princeton and Yale behind the heroics of everyone’s favorite swimming sensation, Dean Farris.

We won’t bore with you lengthy prose. Take a look at Farris’ times from the two day meet:

• 18.35 – 200 free relay split
• 44.62 – 100 back (best time)
• 40.85 – 400 medley relay anchor
• 41.92 – 100 free (best time)
• 41.91 – 400 free relay split

Go ahead and let that marinate for a few minutes while we recap the rest of the meet.

Videos of the record-setting swims in the albums below (scroll right)

Harvard came close to sweeping the annual grudge match, as their swimmers in “not Dean Farris” category came out strong too.

Three men in that category tripled for Harvard, with freshman Umit Gures arguably having the most impressive performances of the bunch — he won the 50 free in 19.75, won the 100 fly in 45.73, and split 20.60 and 45.54 on Havard’s medley relays, helping Harvard to a relay sweep.

Logan Houck swept the distance events, going 4:19.26/14:50.35, while Daniel Chang took both breastrokes by posting times of 54.20 and 1:56.92.

The Harvard men also got a win from Brennan Novack, who took the 200 free in 1:35.32.

Freshman Raunak Khosla earned three of Princeton’s three wins. He first won the 200 fly with a 1:43.83, then swept the IMs with times 1:45.86 and 3:46.70. Cole Buese took advantage of Farris’s absence in the 200 back to win in 1:44.66.

Back to Farris: as noted above, those are personal bests for him in the 100 back and the 100 free. He’s insanely good at both the 100 and 200 distances in free and back, which creates the sort of “what should he swim at NCAAs conundrum” that most swimmers could only dream about. 44.62 puts him within a couple hundredths of the winning time at NCAAs last year — Coleman Stewart won in 44.58, while John Shebat was right behind at 44.59.

While’s Farris is also one of the fastest men ever in the 200 free, his personal best of 1:31.12 is still over a second off of the 1:29.50 Townley Haas threw down last year at NCAAs to win the event and wrest back the U.S. Open record from Blake Pieroni. Last year, Farris opted for the 200 free, and finished 6th, so it’s very possible we may see him switch to the 100 back this year.

He’s probably more likely to stick with the 200 back on the final day of NCAAs. He made the A-final there last year, finishing 7th, albeit a bit off his personal best of 1:38.99, and the 100 free has gotten so incredibly fast than even a 41.9 is no longer guaranteed top eight out of prelims — last year it took a 41.82, with the 9th-11th spots sitting between 41.83 and 41.86.

Women’s Recap

On the women’s side, Yale overpowered both opponents thanks to a triple by Bella Hindley and some strong freshman performances.

Hindley swept the sprint freestyles, going 22.75 and 49.94, and also won the 100 back in 54.91, ending up as the only woman to win three individual victories.

Yale’s freshman combined for three victories, with Ashley Loomis taking the 1000 free in 10:03.58, Marlisle Moesch winning the 200 free in 1:48.76, and Olivia Paoletti getting the victory in the 200 breast with a 2:18.03.

Other Yale individual winners:

• Cha O’Leary – 100 breast – 1:02.37
• Carrie Heilbrun – 200 fly – 1:59.93
• Sophie Fontaine – 500 free – 4:51.07
• Sophie Pilkinton – 200 IM – 2:03.00

Princeton didn’t get any individual wins, but did bookend the meet with victories in the 200 medley relay (1:41.67) and 400 free relay (3:20.75).

Annabelle Paterson (1:59.05 in the 200 back) and Miki Dahlke (54.72 in the 100 fly) earned wins for Harvard as they came out on top against Princeton.