Meet of the Week Recap: Princeton Leads Harvard, Yale in Day One of Women’s H-Y-P; Aemisegger Sets Pool Record in 1000 Free

PRINCETON, New Jersey, February 2. IN the first night of a three-day Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet held at DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, N.J., the women took sole possession of center stage as the men join the fray on Saturday. During action in a SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Meet of the Week, Princeton took a day-one lead over both Harvard (94-75) and Yale (108-61), while Harvard led Yale, 95-74. Overall, Princeton claimed five event titles, while Harvard and Yale each captured a pair.

Sensational rookie Alicia Aemisegger shined with a pair of wins and the fastest time in exhibition in another event. She also shattered a 16-year-old pool standard in the 1000 free with a time of 9:47.14.

200 medley relay
Yale edged out Princeton and Harvard's teams in a hotly-contested first event of an intense meet. The Yale quartet of Moira McCloskey, Caroline Dowd, Andrea Clifford and Meg Gill clocked a 1:43.73, while Princeton's foursome of Kelly Hannigan, Alicia Aemisegger, Justina DiFazio and Sobe George took second in 1:44-flat. Harvard's team of Lindsay Hart, Jaclyn Pangilinan, Bridget O'Connor and Amanda Slaight rounded out the top three in 1:44.38.

McCloskey pushed Yale into the lead with a 26.48 for the fastest backstroke leadoff leg. Aemisegger pulled Princeton into the lead with a blazing fast 28.71 during the breaststroke leg, before Clifford countered with a quick 24.85 split to grab the lead back for Yale in the butterfly. Gill then brought it home with a 22.92 anchor leg.

1000 freestyle
Super frosh Alicia Aemisegger of Princeton obliterated the pool record with the best time of the distance freestyle when she touched in 9:47.14. The previous standard of 10:01.37 was set by Jane Skillman of The Peddie School in 1991.

Fellow rookie Alexandra Clarke of Harvard provided Aemisegger her stiffest test with a second-place 9:53.06, as Clarke led through the initial 500 yards.

Princeton's Ellen Gray closed out the top three with a time of 9:55.21, while Yale's best finish came from Caroline Dowd with a sixth-place 10:10.12.

200 freestyle
In another incredibly close battle, Princeton's Justina DiFazio, Yale's Jane Kim and Harvard's Alexandra Clarke finished with half-a-second of each other in that order.

Trailing both Kim and Clarke, DiFazio back-halfed her race to clock a 1:50.46 for the win. Kim snared second with a time of 1:50.52, while Clarke picked up her second top-three finish with a 1:50.83.

100 backstroke
Yale's Moira McCloskey nipped the B-cut standard with a wire-to-wire winning time of 56.05 to lead a 1-3 effort as teammate Brenna Davis rounded out the podium in 58.10. Meanwhile, Harvard's Lindsay Hart split the difference with a time of 56.84. Princeton's top finisher came in the form of a sixth-place time of 59.38 by Rebecca Nyquist.

100 breaststroke
Harvard's Jaclyn Pangilinan pocketed her team's first title when she dropped the hammer in the final 50 to touch first in 1:03.69. Princeton's Kelly Hannigan, who led by a scant .01 seconds at the halfway mark, placed second in 1:04.50, while Yale's Susan Kim took third in 1:04.63.

200 butterfly
A pair of swimmers eclipsed the B-cut threshold as Princeton's Alicia Aemisegger won her second individual title with a time of 2:00.69, while Harvard's Noelle Bassi clocked a second-place time of 2:01.56. Meanwhile, Bassi's teammate Bridget O'Connor earned third-place with a time of 2:02.67. Blake Walsh gave Yale its best finish with a fifth-place 2:05.04.

50 freestyle
Princeton captured its fourth title of the meet when Sobe George won the splash-and-dash in 23.77. She held off a pair from Yale in Meg Gill (23.91) and Andrea Clifford (23.98), who placed second and third, respectively.

One-meter diving
Harvard's Samantha Papadakis held off a host of Princeton divers with a first-place tally of 291.00 points to earn her school's second title of the meet. Katie Giarra (271.10) and Michelle DeMond (267.55) lead a 2-5 finish for Princeton, while Marisa Poverman gave Yale its top finish with a 10th-place tally of 223.30 points.

400 IM
Princeton pocketed a 1-2 performance in the 400 IM with Lisa Hamming hitting the wall first in 4:23.83 and Kelly Hannigan taking second in 4:24.82. Harvard's Linnea Sundberg secured third in 4:27.94, while Yale's Laura Aronsson took eighth with her school's best time of 4:32.11. Meanwhile, in exhibition action, Alicia Aemisegger hammered home a B-cut time of 4:16.85.

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