Big Al Invitational: Day Two

PRINCETON, New Jersey, December 6. PRINCETON picked up four victories, including a 100 fly win for Doug Lennox and a 400 IM win for Colin Hanna, as the 22nd-ranked men's swimming and diving team continued its close battle with No. 6 Florida in the Big Al Invitational.

Florida currently leads the field with 691.5 points, while Princeton is second with 655 points. Utah is third with 366.5 points. Princeton held a small lead through the preliminary session. The Tigers carried that momentum into the night's first event, when the team of Lennox, Jon Christensen, Mike Carter and Geoff Faux won the 200 medley relay in 1:29.34.

The momentum only grew over the next two events, starting with the 400 IM. Hanna won the race with a B-cut time of 3:48.93, while senior teammate Will Schaffer won the consolation final in 3:57.75. Lennox followed by winning the 100 fly in a B-cut time of 46.53. He joined a pair of freshman teammates in the final, as Charley Wang placed fourth in 49.79 and Mike Monovoukas took seventh in 50.60.

Jon Hartmann took fourth in the 200 free (1:38.65), while freshman Colin Cordes took eighth in 1:41.35. Christensen, yet another talented freshman, followed with a second-place finish in the 100 breast (55.87), while teammates Schaffer (57.34) and Easton Chen (57.80) placed sixth and seventh, respectively. Wang added a seventh-place finish in the 100 back (50.93).

Junior Dan Dickerson finished second in the 3-meter diving competition (337.65), while the 800 free relay team of Lennox, Cordes, Travis McNamara and Hartmann won the event with a B-cut time of 6:34.82.

For the women, a pair of A's, Alicia Aemisegger and Jillian Altenburger, both picked up individual wins for Princeton during the Saturday session of the Big Al Open, which ends Sunday. Aemisegger set a DeNunzio Pool record in the 400 IM while Altenburger topped the field in the 200 free.

As a team, Princeton currently stands in third place with 471 points. Florida leads the field with 815 points, while Utah holds second with 574 points. Princeton leads the likes of Columbia, Brown, Rider and Rutgers.

The session opened with the 200 medley relay, where Princeton took third with the team of Megan Waters, Aemisegger, Justina DiFazio and Courtney Kilkuts (1:43.18). Without much rest, Aemisegger got right back in the water and topped the pool record of former Olympian Christina Teuscher when she went 4:06.48 to win the 400 IM. Besides setting the DeNunzio record, Aemisegger made her A-cut time for the NCAA championships.

Princeton did not place anybody in the 100 fly finals, but the Tigers did have four in the consolation finals. Monika Friedman led the way with a 12th-place finish (57.03), while DiFazio, Waters and freshman Kerry Gruendel all finished between 13th and 16th.

Altenburger followed with a win in the 200 free by finishing in 1:49.06. Youth was served for Princeton in the event, as fellow freshman Aislinn Smalling took sixth in 1:50.57.

Kilkuts (4th, 1:03.09) and Gruendel (8th, 1:05.57) both reached the finals of the 100 breast, while Waters won the consolation final of the 100 back.

Princeton got a second-place finish in the 1-meter diving competition when 2007 Ivy League Championships Diver of the Meet Katie Giarra placed second with 287.35 points. The night ended with the team of Aemisegger, DiFazio, Smalling and Altenberger finishing the 800 free relay in a second-best and B-cut time of 7:18.39.

Special thanks to Princeton for contributing this report.

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