Yale Women Clear Path to 1st Ivy Title in 20 Years with Big Day 3

2017 Ivy League Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships

Day Three

1000 Yard Freestyle

  • Meet Record: M 9:33.43 2008 Alice Aemisegger, Princeton
  • Pool Record: P 9:43.53 2014 Sherry Liu, Harvard

It was a night of repeat performances. Yale’s Cailley Silbert opened the festivities with her second consecutive conference title in the 1000 free. This year she was a half-second faster than in 2016, winning with 9:44.17, lowering her own school record. Penn freshman Grace Ferry placed second with 9:47.77, while Harvard senior Willa Wang came in third in 9:50.09. Cornell’s Currie Murch Elliot lowered her own school record, finishing 13th with 10:00.53.

400 Yard Individual Medley

  • Meet Record: M 4:06.15 2009 Alice Aemisegger, Princeton
  • Pool Record: P 4:15.17 2014 Emma Smith, Yale

Harvard sophomore Sonia Wang was also a back-to-back Ivy champion, winning her second 400 IM with a pool-record 4:14.21. Yale’s Destiny Nelson placed second (4:15.23), just ahead of Ellie Grimes of Penn, who lowered her own school record by 2/100 with 4:16.14. Murch Elliot of Cornell broke her second school record of the day with her prelims time of 4:17.58. Brown freshman Zoe Phillips also downed her school’s record, finishing fifth in 4:17.98.

100 Yard Butterfly

  • Meet Record: M 51.57 2013 Alex Forrester, Yale
  • Pool Record: P 52.19 2012 Alex Forrester, Yale

Harvard’s Brittany Usinger, who broke the school record in prelims, won the 100 fly in 52.92, .12 off her morning swim. Usinger edged defending champion Maddy Zimmerman of Yale (52.94), who was followed in quick succession by teammates Heidi VanderWel (53.80) and Lili Margitai (53.82). A pair of Tigers came to the wall just behind the Bulldogs: 2016 runner-up Isabel Reis (53.96) and her Princeton classmate Joanna Curry (54.01).

200 Yard Freestyle

  • Meet Record: M 1:45.23 2017 Miki Dahlke, Harvard
  • Pool Record: P 1:45.69 2014 Shelby Fortin, Penn

Thursday’s 500 free champion Virginia Burns of Penn took down the pool record with her winning swim of 1:45.51. Burns came from behind to out-touch Harvard’s Miki Dahlke (1:45.54) over the last 25 yards. Burns also passed Yale senior Kina Zhou over the final 50; Zhou finished third with 1:46.86.

100 Yard Breaststroke

  • Meet Record: M 58.44 2013 Katie Meili, Columbia
  • Pool Record: P 1:00.88 2017 Cha O’Leary, Yale

Yale freshman Cha O’Leary broke both her school record and the Brown pool record in prelims but couldn’t lower the mark in finals. Still, she won by 7/10 with 1:00.94 ahead of 2016 runner-up Meagan Popp of Harvard (1:01.67) and her teammate Geordie Enoch (1:01.99).

100 Yard Backstroke

  • Meet Record: M 52.77 2014 Danielle Lee, Harvard
  • Pool Record: P 52.77 2014 Danielle Lee, Harvard

Yale junior VanderWel claimed victory in the 100 back with 52.79 over teammate Bella Hindley (53.34). A quartet from the Crimson finished third through sixth: Marissa Cominelli (54.11), Kristina Li (54.17), Mei Lynn Colby (54.20), and Usinger (54.29). Brown freshman Sarah Welch, who finished eighth, had broken a school record in prelims with 55.11.

400 Yard Medley Relay

  • Meet Record: M 3:36.87 2013 Columbia
  • Pool Record: P 3:38.33 2014 Princeton

The Bulldogs destroyed the championship record, the pool record, and the Yale school record with 3:35.95 from VanderWel (53.38), O’Leary (1:00.99), Maddy Zimmerman (52.50), and Zhou (49.08). Harvard (Colby, Popp, Dahlke, and Jerrica Li) touched second with 3:38.97. Princeton (Christie Chong, Olivia Chan, Reis, and Madelyn Veith) took third in 3:40.50.

Standings after Day Three:

  1. Yale University 1103
  2. Harvard University 1035.5
  3. Princeton University 662
  4. University of Pennsylvania 655
  5. Brown University 597
  6. Columbia University 487.5
  7. Cornell University 441
  8. Dartmouth College 250

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Ivy League Proud
7 years ago

Let’s just say that is Yale wins today, the math on the streak get cleared up for both the conference and championship meets. It will be a fight to the finish with Yale and Harvard. They have great kids and wonderful coaches who are humble and professional. The entire Ivy League are producing very fast swimming that is fun to watch.

KGJ
7 years ago

Great recap! Comment for the author on errors in the 100 Yard Breaststroke section. It should be (Rio 2016 Bronze Medalist in the 100 BR) Katie Meili not “Katie Moll” and the Yale team record is 1:00.66 so it wasn’t broken.

barbotus
7 years ago

Headline no do math so good. 29 years? 1997?

jay ryan
Reply to  barbotus
7 years ago

Jeah, Freakin’ Yalies don’t add no good.

Coach UK
Reply to  barbotus
7 years ago

The headline of the article would be referring to the last time Yale won the conference championship meet, back then it was Easterns and included other teams including Army and Navy. In 1997 Yale won the “Ivy” title which went to the Ivy team with the best dual Meet record, and who cares about dual meets? Brown women won four straight conference titles under Matt Kredich from 1996-1999.

Boola
Reply to  barbotus
7 years ago

39 years since last Ivy Championship Invitational title (in 1978); 20 years since last Ivy title determined by dual meet record (in 1997).

About Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant

Anne Lepesant is the mother of four daughters, all of whom swam in college. With an undergraduate degree from Princeton (where she was an all-Ivy tennis player) and an MBA from INSEAD, she worked for many years in the financial industry, both in France and the U.S. Anne is currently …

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