Princeton Swim and Diving return from the Bruno Invitational with two second place finishes

Despite hard-fought efforts from both the Men and Women’s Swim and Dive teams and a well-deserved win against Dartmouth, both teams finished the invitational in second place, trailing behind the hosts, Brown.

In the 2015-2016 season, the Tigers hosted the Bears and the Big Green for the Big Al Invitational at DeNunzio Pool, claiming the meet with a win in both leagues. This year, however, the Tigers’ experienced a shakier game against Brown.

On the men’s team, two-time NCAA swimmer junior Corey Okubo won the 200 back with a time of 1:44.72, leading the Tigers to a strong start at Providence. Just two games after Okubo’s individual win, sophomore Tyler Lin took first place in the 200 breast in 1:59.85.

Soon after, juniors Zach Buerger and Okubo swept the 200 butterfly as they took home the first and second place finish, respectively.

In the last event of the meet, the Princeton quartet of freshman Sam Cuthbert, juniors Ben Schafer and Alex Lewis, and freshman Jonathan Spires came in second with a time of 3:01.49, with the sophomore quartet of Lin, Murphy McQuet,Matt Harrington, and Cole Buese finishing just 0.11 seconds behind them in third place.

But even amidst these achievements, the Tigers did not obtain the results that they were hoping for at Providence. In particular, the last time the Tigers suffered a defeat to Brown in a dual meet was during the 1960-61 season. Having lost to both Penn and Brown so far this year, the game against rival and likely title contender Harvard will no doubt be a challenge for the Tigers.

The women’s team also had a strong start to the conference. In the opening event, sophomore Monica McGrath once again impressed the crowd by claiming the 1650 free with a time of 16:48.78. In the following event, junior Lindsay Temple and freshman Christie Chong came out above their Ivy League opponents, finishing second and third in 2:00.63 and 2:00.87, respectively. The only swimmer to come out ahead of the two was Rutger’s Koprivova, with an impressive 1:54.49.

In the last swim event of the meet, the relay comprising sophomore Isabel Reis, juniors Maddy Veith and Lindsay Temple, and sophomore Monica McGrath came in 3:20.13, second only to Brown, which finished 3:20.13.

In the end, both the men and women’s teams finished second overall, trailing the hosts. Although last year’s victory against Brown did not repeat itself, both teams took home many individual conference wins.

The Tigers’ next game will be on Friday, Dec. 9, against Columbia (1-2 Men’s, 0-2 Women’s). This meet will be the Tiger’s last event of 2016, before the Men and Women’s teams take on Navy and Villanova in January, respectively.