Women’s 200 Free Relay Final
The Princeton women in this 200 free relay run on a great cycle of continuity. Two seasons ago at this meet, they broke the Ivy League Record in this meet in 1:31.40 on a relay that included two veterans, and two young swimmers by the name of Carter Stephens and Lisa Boyce. Two seasons later, they are now the veterans on the team, and joined by a pair of freshmen named Elizabeth McDonald and Morgan Karetnick, and they broke the record again with a new Ivy League Record in 1:30.49. That included a 21.87 second leg from the junior Boyce.
Yale, including a 22.51 leadoff from their star Alex Forrester, was 2nd in 1:31.56, which almost broke the old record themselves. Columbia took 3rd in 1:31.94, including a 22.0 from Katie Meili, which was just the beginning of a big night for her.
Women’s 500 Free Final
Penn’s Shelby Fortin successfully defended her 500 free league title with a 4:41.34 – shaving another few tenths off of her school record from prelims. The junior has never lost this title in her career, and next season will have a chance at a four-peat. She would become the second-straight four-peater, if successful, following Alicia Aemisegger from Princeton.
Fortin will have a serious challenger next year though: Yale freshman Eva Fabian was 2nd in 4:43.97. She’s a former open water World Champion, and that endurance showed in this race. She got in a hole early in the first 100, but was about evenly paced with Fortin for the rest of the race.
Princeton’s Jillian Altenburger was 3rd in 4:45.25, with Harvard freshman Sherry Liu coming in 4th. Another Harvard rookie won the B-Final too: Margaret Ramsey in 4:49.93.
Women’s 200 IM Final
Katie Meili could have walked away from this meet with a Columbia Record, an Ivy League Record, and a third-straight title in the 200 IM without dropping anything from prelims. However, there was an undeniable carrot dangling in front of her: Natalie Coughlin’s Pool Record at Princeton that had stood since 2003. Meili was .01 away from the record in prelims, and she blew it away. Her 1:55.09 cut nearly half-a-second off of Coughlin’s record, and moves her up to 6th in the country this season.
Her junior teammate Alena Kluge took 2nd in 1:58.73, which now leaves her 3rd behind only Meili and another Columbia Lion, Cristina Teuscher, on the all-time Ivy League rankings. In fact, Columbia swimmers now have the 9-fastest swims in the history of this meet.
After those two came four freshmen; that include Princeton’s Sada Stewart with a 1:59.42 (just the 5th swimmer under two minutes in the history of this meet), and her teammate Beverly Nguyen (2:00.45). Harvard’s Kendall Crawford was 5th in 2:00.58, and another Princeton swimmer Nikki Larson was 6th in 2:01.38.
Women’s 50 Free Final
Lisa Boyce, already with a huge relay split under her belt from the relay, re-broke her own Championship Record from prelims with a 22.07 for yet another back-to-back winner. Every individual swimming champion at this meet, in fact, has been a repeat champion so far.
Alex Forrester was 2nd in 22.30, which was also under the record coming into the meet. That’s the best time of her career, indicating that a big 100 fly (her best race) is coming on Friday.
Sara Li was 3rd in 22.46, followed by Elizabeth McDonald and Reia Tong, both freshmen, tied for 4th in 22.87.
Women’s 1 Meter Diving Final
Harvard’s Brittany Powell came into the finals almost 30 points back of Columbia’s Kristin Heihir. Powell, though, came out with a big score of 290.45 to win. Rachel Zambrowicz was 2nd in 278.65, and a 3rd-place finish from Paige Meneses of Yale.
Women’s 400 Medley Relay Final
Led by a 58.79 breaststroke split from Katie Meili, the Columbia women’s 400 medley relay destroyed the Ivy League Record with a 3:36.87. That beat the 3:39.20 set at this same meet in 2010. In fact, the top four teams in this relay were all under the old record.
Princeton was 2nd in 3:37.49, with a 53.7 leadoff from Saba and a 52.9 butterfly leg from freshman Nikki Larson. In fact, it was Meili’s breaststroke leg that was the only advantage Columbia had head-to-head in this relay.
Harvard was 3rd on a 48.3 anchor split from Sara Li, and Yale was 4th in 3:38.21. Forrester was a 51.2 on their butterfly leg.
Live meet results available here.
Team Standings
When reading through these results on their surface, it would seem like a very, very tight meet. Though it’s by no means a runaway, the Princeton women have opened up a comfortable margin over their rivals from Harvard. That’s thanks to their balance across the races on the first day of the meet – there’s nary a weak event to be seen for the Tigers. Princeton should continue to lead through the first part of Friday’s finals session before the Crimson start their big comeback in the 100 back and 100 breast.
1. Princeton University 473.5
2. Harvard University 412
3. Yale University 324
4. Columbia University 313
5. Dartmouth College 244
6. Brown University 189.5
7. University of Pennsylvania 173
8. Cornell University 147
