HYP MEET (WOMEN)
- February 2-3, 2017
- Harvard University
- Results
SCORES
- Yale 161, Princeton 139
- Yale 162, Harvard 138
- Princeton 177, Harvard 123
The Yale women reigned supreme at this year’s HYP meet, defeating both Harvard and Princeton in one of the most exciting Ivy League meets of the season. Princeton outperformed Harvard as well, and kept things close with Yale.
Though Yale and Princeton both defeated Harvard, the Crimson kicked off the meet Friday night with a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 medley relay. Yale and Princeton’s A relays both were DQ’d for early takeoffs. Harvard’s A featured field best splits from sophomore Mei Lynn Colby on back (25.16) and freshman Ingrid Wall on breast (27.84). Harvard also won the final relay on Saturday, the 400 free relay, going 3:18.78 and getting a 48.65 anchor from Miki Dahlke.
Yale’s Destiny Nelson and Bella Hindley came through in a big way for the Bulldogs.
Nelson, who transferred from USC after one season and is now a junior at Yale, won the 200 back (1:55.93) and then went 1:59.64 to win the 200 IM by over three seconds. She also posted the top time in the 400 IM, a 4:13.89. which is just off of her own school record 4:13.73. Hindley swept the sprints, going 22.43 in the 50 free and 48.97 in the 100 free. In the 50, her time broke Princeton alum Lisa Boyce’s pool record by two hundredths. Hindley was also a 48.55 anchoring Yale’s 2nd place 400 free relay.
Freshman Cha O’Leary also earned a win for Yale, going 1:00.60 to take the 100 breast. Yale’s distance group was strong, too, as they went 1-2-3 in the 500 free with Sophie Fontaine (4:49.36), Cailley Silbert (4:49.48), and Kendall Brent (4:49.76). Finally, Maddy Zimmerman earned yet another win for the Bulldogs, going 53.15 to take the 100 fly.
Princeton freshman Courtney Tseng touched out Yale senior Cailley Silbert at the finish in the 1000, going 9:55.72 to Silbert’s 9:55.86, in one of the most exciting races of the weekend. The Tigers also enjoyed 1-2 finishes in the 200 free (Monica McGrath – 1:48.58, Claire McIlmail – 1:48.90) and 200 fly (Joanna Curry – 1:58.25, Elaine Zhou – 1:59.18).
Harvard swam to two individual wins, with Colby in the 100 back (55.09) and Jaycee Yegher in the 200 breast (2:11.72) over O’Leary (2:11.80).
PRESS RELEASE – HARVARD
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard women’s swimming and diving team (4-2, 4-2 Ivy) concluded the regular season, dropping two duals to Yale (11-0, 7-0 Ivy) and Princeton (9-3, 6-1 Ivy) on day two of the annual H-Y-P meet, Sunday afternoon.
Sophomore Miki Dahlke highlighted the Crimson on the second day. In the first meet of the day, the California native finished second in the 100 freestyle, touching the wall with a time of 50.38. Dahlke closed out the meet swimming the anchor leg for the Harvard B squad that finished first in the 400 freestyle relay, touching the wall with the time of 3:18.78 – .23 seconds shy of the Blodgett Pool record.
Freshman Jaycee Yegher also saw success on the second day of H-Y-P, posting the Crimson’s first, first-place finish of the day. In the 200 breaststroke, Yegher edged out Yale’s Cha O’Leary by eight-hundredths of a second, finishing with a time of 2:11.72.
Junior Mikaela Thompson led Crimson divers in the three-meter dive, posting a second-place finish with a score of 277.25, ahead of teammate, senior Jing Leung‘s score of 277.25. Senior Alisha Mah finished fourth with a score of 270.60.
Senior Hannah Allchurch, who dominated the one-meter dive on day one, posted a score of 259.45 in the three-meter.
What’s Next
Harvard will prepare for the 2018 Ivy League Championships hosted at Blodgett Pool, beginning on Feb. 14. The championship will be broadcast on the Ivy League Network.
PRESS RELEASE – YALE
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – the Yale women’s swimming and diving pulled through a tough competition against Harvard and Princeton this past weekend, winning overall against both teams. The team was shortly behind after completion of the first day, scoring 66-84 against Princeton and 71-79 against Harvard. Both swimmers and divers made a strong comeback the second day to finish the overall competition with scores of 161-139 against Princeton and 162-138 against Harvard.
Though the Bulldogs were slightly behind in terms of scores on the first day, they still had several outstanding performances. Distance freestylers Cailley Silbert and Lilla Felix took second (9:55.86) and third (9:57.97) in the 1,000-yard freestyle, respectively, with Silbert finishing just within 0.14 seconds behind Princeton’s swimmer. Breastrokers Cha O’Leary and Ashley Pales swept the field in the 100 yard breastroke, finishing first (1:00.60) and third (1:02.18), respectively.
In the 200 yard butterfly, Sophie Fontaine slipped into third, touching the wall with a time of 2:00.79. Sprinter Bella Hindley flew ahead of the competition, winning the race and breaking the Blodgett Pool record – last broken in 2012 – in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.43. To wrap up the first day, Destiny Nelson took the gold in the 400-yard individual medley with a breath-taking time of 4:13.89, finishing more than five seconds ahead of Princeton’s swimmer who finished second.
The team pulled through the second day of the meet, taking first, second, and third in majority of the events. Hindley once again won another event – the 100-yard freestyle – with a time of 48.7, defeating both Harvard’s and Princeton’s fastest sprinters. Nelson and Heidi Vanderwel tag-teamed the 200-yard backstroke, finishing first (1:55.93) and second (1:57.06). O’Leary and Pales once again competed in their second breastroke event – the 200-yard breastroke – and slipped into second (2:11.80) and third (2:15.23) with O’Leary finishing just 0.08 seconds away from Harvard’s swimmer.
Fontaine, Silbert, and Kendall Krent raced as the triple threat of the 500-yard freestyle, taking first (4:49.36), second (4:49.48), and third (4:49.76), respectively. Butterflier Maddy Zimmerman crushed the competition in the 100-yard butterfly, winning the event with a time of 53.15. Nelson competed once more in the individual medley – the 200-yard individual medley this time – with her teammate Sophie Pilkinton, out-racing the the entire competition and placing first (1:59.64) and second (2:03.09), respectively.
Lili Margitai, O’Mara, Kate Rogers, and Hindley represented Yale’s A-relay in the 400-yard freestyle relay, finishing just short of a second away from Harvard’s A-relay but under two seconds ahead of Princeton’s A-relay, wrapping up the tri-meet with an overall win.
Robert J.H. Kiphuth Head Coach of Swimming and Diving Jim Henry was ecstatic about the team’s performances. “The team did an outstanding job working together to get two more wins against some great competition. We improved from the beginning of the meet with every event. I am very proud of how the team responded after being behind after day one. We are all looking forward to using the momentum from this meet into the Ivy Championships in 12 days.”
He was also excited to compliment the senior class on their “impressive 44-3 dual meet record in their four years including a 31 meet win streak.”
The Bulldogs have now finished all the dual meets of season with another all Ivy dual meet champion title. They will return to the Blodgett pool at Cambridge, Mass. in a couple of weeks for their conference meet, the Ivy League Championships.
PRESS RELEASE – PRINCETON
After two years of falling short to both Harvard and Yale at the Ivy League Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships, maybe some wondered if Princeton was ready to fall back into the pack.
Princeton answered that question loud and clear this weekend in Blodgett Pool, and they have every intention of answering it again in two weeks.
A brilliant opening session, which included three individual wins, helped the Tigers race out to leads against both Harvard and Yale Saturday night. They couldn’t quite hold that pace against the reigning Ivy champion Bulldogs, but Princeton knocked off Harvard 177-123 for its first dual win over the Crimson in Boston since 2009.
Courtney Tseng, Monica McGrath, and Joanna Curry each provided Day 1 wins for the Tigers, while freshman diver Sine Scribbick grabbed a Sunday win on the 1-meter board to help Princeton defeat Harvard. Yale had a strong Sunday in the swim events and ultimately defeated Princeton 161-139.
Ironically, Saturday’s strong session opened in inauspicious fashion, as Princeton had its top 200 medley relay get disqualified for an early start. Instead, the quartet of Stephanie Nelson, Karen Zhang, Elaine Zhou and Lindsay Temple placed fifth in the event in 1:43.64.
It got better quickly for the Tigers, as Tseng made her HYP debut in impressive fashion with a thrilling win in the 1000 in 9:55.72 (see highlight below). It is the fourth-fastest time in Princeton history, and it establishes Tseng as a swimmer to watch at the Ivy Championships in two weeks.
McGrath kept the winning ways going by taking the 200 free in 1:48.58. It would be a 1-2 finish for the Tigers, as senior co-captain Claire McIlmail went 1:48.90 in a previous heat to take runner-up honors.
Nelson (55.24) and Temple (55.45) went 2-3 in the 100 back, and Ma followed with a runner-up finish in the 100 breast (1:01.66).
Next came the 200 fly, where Curry made a major statement by posting the Ivy League’s best time and Princeton’s third-fastest time ever in the event (1:58.25). Zhou made a big charge as well and finished second in 1:59.18, the eighth-fastest in school history.
Senior co-captain Maddy Veith finished second in the 50 free in 23.11, and Sophia Peifer took second in the 3-meter diving event with 302.60 points to close Friday’s session.
Veith came back Saturday to take third in the 100 free (50.40), while Curry (1:58.89) and Nelson (1:59.43) went 3-4 in the 200 back. Junior Kate Didion took fourth in the 200 breast (2:15.68), while Tseng took fourth in the 500 (4:52.39).
Princeton made a move in the 100 fly, as Elsa Welshofer (53.79), McIlmail (54.36), and Reis (54.59) went 2-3-4 in the 100 fly.
Scribbick got Princeton a Sunday victory with a strong performance on the 1-meter board. She scored 288.55 points to top Harvard’s top two divers by more than 10 points apiece. Fellow freshman Regan Barney added a third-place finish in the 200 IM (2:03.13), and McIlmail, Veith, Welshofer, and Alisabeth Marsteller closed the meet with a third-place finish in the 400 free relay (3:21.65).
Princeton will now focus on its return to Blodgett Pool for the 2018 Ivy League Championships, which take place Feb. 14-17 in Boston. The full meet will be streamed live on the Ivy League Network.
