Swimming & Diving: Reigning Ivy League champions open strong

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams opened their seasons with the Princeton Fall Invitational at Denunzio Pool this weekend and had a strong showing to set the tone for the upcoming seasons. The Tigers competed against Georgetown, Lehigh and The College of New Jersey.

To set the tone for the day, the women began with the 200-yard freestyle relay and ended with a 1-2 finish of their A and C teams. Sophomore Laura Loughran, senior Kerry Greundel, junior Kathy Qu and sophomore Laura Slater touched the wall two seconds before teammates freshman Shirley Wang, freshman Emily Yu, freshman Cara Slear and senior Aislinn Smalling.

Qu is also a sports writer for The Daily Princetonian.

For the 200-freestyle relay on the men’s side, Princeton‘s A and B teams earned a 2-3 finish.

The women went on to show their speed and incredible depth in the 500-yard freestyle, stealing the top seven spots out of 21 competitors. Loughran took first place, followed by senior Lauren Shanley, sophomore Kasey Morris, freshman Theresa Meyer, sophomore Maureen McCotter, Qu and freshman Elizabeth Gelb, respectively.

The men also had a stellar performance in the 500-freestyle, placing nine swimmers in the top 10. Senior tri-captain Colin Cordes swam for first, with a Georgetown swimmer taking second place. Then, in order, came freshman David Paulk, freshman Caleb Tuten, freshman Andrew Klutey, sophomore Paul Nolle, junior Will Lawley, freshman Oliver Bennett, senior Ryan Chiu and senior tri-captain Jon Christensen, completing a dominant performance.

In the 200-yard IM race, Gruendel had another first- place finish, followed by Slear in second. The men had another strong performance in the 200-IM, placing in the top seven spots with Christensen leading the pack.

The men and women also both had top finishes in the 400-yard medley relay, with each team beating the next finisher by over five seconds. Wang, Yu, Qu and Loughran led the women, and sophomore Adam Lebovitz, Christensen, senior tri-captain Mike Monovoukas and Cordes raced for the men. The women went on to earn a 1-2 finish in the 200-yard medley relay, and the men followed with a 1-3 finish.

In another feat to prove the depth of the Tiger swim teams, the men and women each took the top six spots in the 400-yard IM relay. Sophomore Rebecca Lewinson earned the top spot for the women in 4:33.66, and Christensen took first place for the men — for his fourth top finish of the day — in 4:03.15.

The Tiger men earned nine out of 10 top spots in the 100-yard butterfly, with Monovoukas in first place and freshman Michael Strand taking third, followed by junior David Reid, Bennett, sophomore Ian Rea, Chiu, senior Adlai Pappy, Christensen and junior Kaspar Raigla.

The women continued to dominate the top rankings with the 200-yard freestyle, taking six of the top seven places, led by Smalling. Cordes, Lawley and junior Andres Tung had a 1-2-3 finish in the 200-yard freestyle.

Cordes and freshman Connor Maher tied in the 200-yard backstroke for first place, with Strand and Lebovitz right behind them.

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The Tigers continuously dominated the competition, placing at least five swimmers in the top 10 spots of every individual race. Relay teams also had stellar performances, with the men and women both taking the top two team spots in the 800- and 400-yard freestyle relays.

In addition to the strong performances of the team in the Princeton Invitational, eight female Princeton swimmers competed at the Minnesota Grand Prix weekend, which is the opening event of the USA Swimming Grand Prix Series. These Tigers were competing alongside former Olympic champions, such as Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Senior co-captain Meredith Monroe had a ninth-place finish in the 200-meter backstroke competition at this event of 24 competitors. Freshman Damaris Iriondo came in 24th of 55 in the 800-meter freestyle, and classmate Claire Loht swam for 34th place.

After proving its speed and depth this past weekend, Princeton is looking forward to beginning its regular season by opening with a dual meet against Penn and Cornell in Philadelphia. The Tigers enter this season on a 38-meet winning streak in duals, a run they hope to extend this year.