Swimming & Diving: Hosts dominate at 3-day Big Al Open

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, once again, proved their talent, speed, depth and dominance, blowing their opponents out of the water.

The Tigers (3-0) hosted the annual three-day Big Al Open this weekend at DeNunzio Pool and competed against Brown, Columbia, Rider, Virginia and Villanova on both the men’s and women’s side. In addition, the men took on New York Athletic Club, Drexel and the United States Military Academy, while the women faced Rutgers and James Madison University.

Themen's teamamassed a whopping 1,377 points, almost doubling second-place team Columbia’s 691 points. The meet also counted as a dual meet against Brown, which was a 164-74 victory for the Tigers.

“Everyone was really excited about their swims this weekend,” senior co-captain Colin Cordes said. “Most of the team swam best times, which is exactly what we were hoping for from this meet.”

Senior co-captain Jon Christensen said that having multiple best times is “pretty rare at this point in the season, so that is a very good sign for things to come.”

The women improved their dual-meet winning streak to 41 with their win over Brown. Overall, the women earned 1,103.5 points, followed by Rutgers with 638.

“I'm really proud of how we did this weekend,” sophomore Lisa Boyce said. “We came together as a team on deck, and that definitely showed up in our performances in the water. We had lifetime-best swims across the board, which is really impressive, especially for this point in the season.”

On the opening day, the men took first place in all six events. Sophomore Paul Nolle took first place in the 500-yard freestyle over seven seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Of thesix races, the Tigers had one-two finishes in three, including the two relay teams in the 200 freestyle relay, Christensen and sophomore Daniel Hasler in the 200-yard IM and two quartets in the 400-yard medley relay.

The men continued to overshadow the competition in day two of the meet, earning the top spot in six more races. They opened again with a one-two finish, with junior Kaspar Raigla, Christensen, freshman Michael Strand and freshman Harrison Wagner taking first place in the 200-yard medley relay and senior Charley Wang, junior Brian Barrett and seniors Michael Monovoukas and Matt LaMonaca four seconds behind them. Hasler, sophomore Eric Materniak and freshman Oliver Bennett went on to earn the top three places in the 400 IM race. Later, Strand and Raigla had first- and second-place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke.

On the final day, the men nearlykept on pacewith the previous two days, earning five first place finishes. Nolle had another incredible performance in the mile race, finishing in 15:17.24, over 40 seconds faster than any other competitor. In the 100 freestyle, Wagner led Princeton and took first place, followed by sophomore Ian Rea, Monovoukas, junior Will Lawley, and Barrett in third, fourth, fifth and sixth places, respectively. Christensen led a Princeton one-two-three finish in the 200 breaststroke, almost matching his Princeton record time at 1:56.91, with Hasler and Materniak following him six seconds later.

The women also had outstanding performances, led by Boyce and senior co-captain Meredith Monroe. Boyce, freshman Sarah Liang, sophomore Laura Slater and junior Carter Stephens opened the finals races on Friday with a victory in the 200 freestyle relay. Boyce went on to take the first collegiate spot in the 50 freestyle behind Megan Waters ’11, who continues to volunteer and train with the Tigers in preparation for the Olympics this summer. Monroe, senior co-captain Kerry Gruendel, Stephens and Boyce won the 400 medley relay to finish out the day.

On day two, the Tigers showed the depth of their program, placing numerous swimmers in the top spots of each finals race. Monroe, Slater, Liang and freshmanCourtney Ciardiello finished in fourth place in the 200 medley relay. The Tigers went on to place freshman Cara Slear and sophomore Rebecca Lewinsonin two of the top four spots in the 400 IM.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Senior Aislinn Smalling tied with a Brown swimmer for first place in the 200 freestyle, and sophomore Laura Loughran and freshmen Reese Iriondo and Claire Loht finished in the top eight. Boyce broke her Princeton record in the 100 backstroke, and Monroe finished two seconds behind her in second place.

The women finished strong on the final day of the Big Al. Sophomore Maureen McCotter opened with a second-place finish in the mile race in 16:40.91. Monroe then took first place in the 200 backstroke, the event she won in the Ivy Championships last season, and freshman Shirley Wang finished second.

The 100 freestyle also came down to a Waters-Boyce one-two finish, separated by .25 seconds. Stephens, Ciardiello and junior Kathy Qu took the top three spots in the 200 fly. The Tigers finished out the meet with a win by Boyce, Slater, Loht and Stephens in the 400 freestyle relay.

Boyce participated in three first-place finishes on relay teams,swam a best time and took two second-place finishes behind Waters.

“I'm pretty happy with how I swam at this meet," Boyce said. "I know that there are definitely a lot of things I can work on, and I'm going to use my races here to help prepare me for later in the season, but it was agood meet for where I'm at right now.”

After their stellar performance, the Tigers now have a break in competition until January, when the men take on Navy on Jan. 7, and the women have a dual meet with New Hampshire and Dartmouth on Jan. 29. Despite this long break, the men’s co-captains agree that it will be a beneficial opportunityfor the team to continue practicing. Cordes noted that the successes this weekend will lead the team into hard training throughout winter break.

“Though we are going into a very tough time of academics, I think this weekend will further motivate everyone to continue working hard through winter break and the rest of the season,” Christensen said.

“Seeing everyone race like this was a confidence booster for me," Boyce said. "I feel like we can use this to push through some hard training these next few weeks before we start up with competitions again in January"