Princeton Claims Women’s Ivy League Title

PRINCETON, New Jersey, February 17. LED by Swimmer of the Meet Alicia Aemisegger and Diver of the Meet Katie Giarra, neither of whom are even upperclassmen, the No. 23 Princeton women's swimming and diving team led after every session of the 2007 Ivy League Championships and held off one final Harvard rally to claim its 17th title Saturday night. Princeton got three wins in the final session from three familiar faces – Aemisegger, Giarra and sophomore standout Justina DiFazio.

Princeton was an upset winner in 2006 after defeating regular season champion Harvard in Cambridge. This season, Princeton was the hunted after going perfect in the Ivy League season. And the Tigers were hunted by several talented squads, including an impressive set of swimmers at Yale and another typically strong Crimson squad.

But nobody was taking this title away from Princeton, especially since no member of this Orange and Black roster had ever gotten the chance to celebrate an Ivy League title inside the walls of DeNunzio Pool.

"We really stepped up this week," Princeton head coach Susan Teeter said. "What a great competition this was for the Ivy League. There were so many fast times. You had Harvard swim well, you had Princeton swim well. It's just an unbelievable feeling right now. I'm so proud of this team."

Harvard claimed the first event of the night when freshman distance specialist Alexandra Clarke won the 1650 free in 16:19.67. As was the case most of the weekend, even when Princeton didn't win an event, it picked up big points in the championship race. Junior Ellen Gray took second in 16:29.82, while freshman Aurora Lee placed fifth in 16:57.08.

Princeton's Meghan Capparell was the only finalist in the 200 back, which she placed eighth in with a time of 2:04.94. This event brought Harvard the closest to Princeton, as the Crimson cut the deficit to only 4.5 points. With big Tiger events still to come, momentum was still on Princeton's side, but a major swim would help quite a bit.

Enter multiple-winner DiFazio, who won the 100 free in 50.17. After also winning the 200 free the night before, DiFazio's victory, along with an eighth-place finish by senior Sobenna George (52.29), helped Princeton re-establish a solid lead. Aemisegger built on that with a meet record performance in the 200 breast. Her time of 2:14.19 gave her three wins in three swims and clinched the Swimmer of the Meet award.

Princeton's Monika Friedman placed second in the 200 fly (2:02.21), giving the Tigers a 22.5-point lead with only two events remaining. Unfortunately for Harvard, one of those events was the 3-meter diving competition. Princeton has owned the diving board over the last two seasons, and Greg Gunn's crew did it again Saturday night. Led by a first-place effort from Giarra (335.95), the Tigers claimed first, second, fourth and sixth in the event to clinch their second straight title and their seventh in eight seasons. Michelle DeMond placed second with 306.95 points, while Charlotte Jones took fourth with 277.65 points and Shelby Rudd claimed sixth with 268.75 points.

The 400 free relay team of Lisa Hamming, Kristen Arey, George and Aemisegger ended the meet with a second-place finish in the 400 free relay (3:26.08). Princeton ended the day with 1496 points, while Harvard took second with 1408.5 points.

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