Men’s swimming and diving continue ambitious season at Providence

This weekend, men’s swimming and diving will travel to Providence and take on the Bears and the Big Green.

On Friday’s upcoming three-day invitational, The Princeton Tigers (1-1) hope to take away two clean wins against Brown (0-1) and Dartmouth (0-2).

At their most recent meet on Nov. 18, the reigning champions hailed victorious over hosts Cornell (191-109), but suffered a defeat against the Quakers (192-108) despite their efforts. This marked Princeton’s first defeat against Penn since 1989.

But even amidst the loss, junior Corey Okubo as well as the quartet of sophomore Cole Buese, senior Julian Mackrel, junior Ben Schafer, and junior Alex Lewis brought home wins in the 200 backstroke and 400 relay, respectively. Furthermore, the Tigers obtained numerous second-place finishes that weekend. This weekend, Princeton’s swimming and diving will be looking to continue such successes, as well as improve on its weaker events.

The last time the Tigers travelled to Rhode Island, they returned with the Ivy League title in their hands. Princeton hopes to come back with similar results this time around, ideally with two clean victories against the hosts and Dartmouth.

Last month, Brown lost their season opener against Yale, and Dartmouth suffered a similar fate against Harvard and Cornell. Neither team inflicted Princeton with a defeat in recent years, and Princeton once again enters this invitational as convincing favorites.

These early meets will prove to be vital for Princeton’s swimming and diving this year as they prepare to take on threatening opponents such as Navy in January and more importantly, rivals Harvard and Yale in February.

Princeton, as well as many other teams, is currently undergoing a crucial adjustment: a successful integration of the newly joined freshmen. After graduating a significant number of seniors last year, the Tigers responded by bringing in 13 members of the Class of 2020 — constituting over a third of the current roster.

Despite these rookies’ talents and technical skill, performing under a high-pressure college environment is a monumental step above high school. In order to perform their best at upcoming rival matches next year, as well as the championship on February, the rookie Tigers will be tasked with internalizing the nature of the college athletic scene by making the most out of the season’s early meets.

Men’s swimming and diving will kick-off their second Ivy League meet of the year on the morning of Dec. 2, and will travel to New York in the following week to take on the Lions on what will be the Tiger’s last meet of 2016.