Women’s Swimming finishes 3rd in Ivy League Championships

On Saturday, Feb. 18, the 2016-2017 Ivy League Women’s Swimming Championships came to a close. At the end of the hard-fought four-day venue, Yale took home their seventh Ivy League Title for the first time in twenty years.

The Tigers came in third place, tallying a total of 1,024 points. No. 1 Yale finished with a stunning 1,681 points, coming out only slightly ahead of Harvard’s second place score of 1,590.5 points. Penn trailed Princeton by 62 points to come in fourth, followed by Brown (859), Columbia (683.5), Cornell (653), and Dartmouth (358).

On day one, the Bulldogs — who went an undefeated 7-0 in the regular season — stunned the audience in both the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relays, breaking both of the Ivy Championship meet records and coming out with a convincing first place at the end of the day. The Tigers also started the meet in decent form, as the quartet of freshman Gianna Garcia, senior Olivia Chan, junior Elsa Welshofer, and junior Maddy Veith took fourth place in the opening event. In their second race of the day, Princeton continued to solidify their position as a team of four — sophomores Joanna Curry, Isabel Reis, Elaina Gu, and Monica McGrath — finished third place, bringing the Tigers just four points shy from second place Harvard and two from third place Brown.

On Thursday, the first full day of the meet, the Tigers displayed a good performance overall, overtaking Brown to finish third by the end of the day. Princeton secured top-10 finishes in all but one of the events, and the likes of McGrath, who took sixth in the 500 free, displayed strong individual and group performances across the scoreboard. But despite having moved up the rankings to a convincing third place by the end of the seventh event, the Tigers still trailed second place Yale’s 555 points by 232 points.

A similar story played out throughout the last two days of the competition. The Crimson and the Bulldogs consistently finished at the top in every event, but the Tigers continued to fight for a position on the scoreboard. Out of the many strong performances displayed by the Orange and the Black throughout the last two days, some notable events include Friday’s 400 Medley Relay, where the team of freshman Christie Chong, Chan, Reis, and Veith took third place, Saturday’s 200 back, where Chong finished fourth place in 1:57.46, and the 400 Free Relay —- the last event of this year’s championships —– as Princeton finished with style as McGrath, junior Claire McIlmail, Reis, Veith finished fourth place in 3:20.65.

At the end of the season, Princeton came in third place, finishing 62 points ahead of fourth place Penn and 566.5 points behind second place Harvard.

Although the Tigers could not compose a dramatic comeback in this year’s championships, their Tigers’ hard work and dedication gave them a strong season, one worthy of being the last for head coach Susan Teeter’s 33-year coaching career at Princeton. As coach Teeter was honored for her brilliant career in leading the Tigers to a total of 17 Ivy League titles, she thanked, congratulated, and praised all of the current swimmers, alumni, and tradition that makes up the Princeton Swimming and Diving community.