Men's Swimming: Christensen named All-America at nationals

Senior tri-captain Jon Christensen completed his collegiate swimming career by earning both an All-America honor and another All-America Honorable Mention while breaking his own Ivy League record. His ninth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke on the second day of competition earned him an honorable mention.

On the third night, Christensen broke his own Ivy League record of 1 minute, 55.96 seconds in the 200-yard breaststroke, swimming in 1:54.80 during the preliminary race. He went on to swim for seventh place in the championship finals, earning first-team All-America recognition.

“While I hoped to maintain or improve on some of my performances from the Ivy Championships, I never expected to do as well as I did,” Christensen said. “Earning All-America honors in my last event, the 200-breastroke, is definitely the best way I could have gone out.”

“It was amazing to see him really fire it up in his final swim meet and swim in the championship final of the 200-breaststroke,” said sophomore Paul Nolle, who took two top-50 finishes of his own. “He was able to end his career with quite a bang and set a strong example for the team to follow in years to come.”

Nolle came in 41st place in the 500-yard freestyle and 25th in the mile. Junior Kaspar Raigla earned two 32nd-place finishes in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke. Freshman Harrison Wagner came in 44th in the 50-yard freestyle, completing the race in 20.05 seconds. Freshman Michael Strand rounded out the team’s performance, coming in 29th place in the 100-yard backstroke.

The relay team of Christensen, Raigla, Strand and Wagner also had a strong showing in its four events. On the first night, the quartet swam for 22nd place in the 200-yard freestyle relay and took 17th in the 400-yard medley. On Friday, the Tigers earned an All-America Honorable Mention with an 11th-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay at 1:26.80. They closed the NCAA competition by earning 23rd place in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Overall, Princeton finished the competition in 23rd place, the top finish of any mid-major school.

“It’s an incredible accomplishment to place 23rd overall, bearing out and contesting teams that have athletic advantages over us,” Nolle said. “We asserted ourselves on the national level and proved again that the Princeton Tigers are a force to reckon with.”

Additionally, this was the third time this season that Princeton finished ahead of Harvard in a competition. “It is rare that we get the opportunity to beat Harvard three times in one season, and I know I speak for the whole team when I say it is a great feeling to have accomplished that,” Nolle said.

Now that the season has officially come to an end, some Tigers will continue to train hard until the end of the school year in preparation for Olympic Trials at the beginning of the summer.

As for next season, Nolle said the team has its sights on a fifth consecutive Ivy League title. “We are hopeful that the returning members of the team and the incoming freshmen will quickly fill the gaps left by the seniors,” he said.