Gimme Five! Princeton Wins Fifth Consecutive Ivy League Men’s Swim/Dive Title

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, March 9. THE Princeton Tigers started off slow at the 2013 Ivy League championships, but had a monster third day to easily win its fifth consecutive conference title over rival Harvard by 68 points.

While Princeton's run toward the title was the overall story of the day, Nejc Zupan had the highlight swim of the final day, winning the 200 breast title in 1:53.97. The Dartmouth junior has been slightly faster this season with a 1:53.87 from the Brown Invitational in December, a time that ranks fifth nationally and gives him an automatic NCAA invite. Well back at Zupan's feet in second place was Princeton's Byron Sanborn with a 1:55.58, while Harvard's Chuck Katis placed third with a 1:56.96.

Zupan's swim today was the only one to dip under an NCAA automatic qualifying standard, though Brown's Tommy Glenn almost got an automatic cut in the 200 fly, winning with a 1:43.11. The automatic cut is 1:42.96. Glenn has his NCAA invite already with his 100 fly win from Friday evening. Columbia's David Jackl was a second back with a runner-up time of 1:44.14, and teammate Kevin Quinn was third with a 1:44.78.

The 23-point lead that Princeton had going into the third day of finals almost disappeared in the evening's first event, the 1650 free. Harvard scored 72 points in the mile, compared to just 40 for Princeton. (Scoring went down to 24 places in the Ivy League championships.) Winning the event was Penn's Chris Swanson, on the top of the podium after placing third in the 500 and second in the 1000. His winning time of 15:02.11 kept Yale's Rob Harder from sweeping the distance freestyles, as Harder touched in 15:08.87. Zach Ridout of Princeton was third with a 15:10.60.

The 200 backstroke closed the door on any hope Harvard had on stealing the team title, as Princeton scored a massive 104 points to just 41 for Harvard. Connor Maher led the Princeton charge in the event with a winning time of 1:43.76. James Verhagen of Dartmouth prevented a Tiger 1-2 finish with a 1:44.23, with Princeton's En-Wei Hu-Van Wright collecting third with a 1:44.31.

Harvard got some pride in the 100 free, taking the top three spots in the event. Chris Satterthwaite led the way with a 43.28 victory, followed by Oliver Lee (43.62) and Griffin Schumacher (43.88).The 64-point lead Princeton had after the 200 back was whittled down to 17 points after the 100 free.

With its depth in the 200 breast, 200 fly and 3-meter diving, Princeton's team victory was assured going into the 400 free relay. Harvard went down swinging in the 400 free relay with an unsurprising win, given their result in the individual 100 free. The Crimson's time of 2:52.32 was an automatic NCAA standard, and will be swum if Harvard gets at least one swimmer invited to the Big Dance. Princeton gave Harvard a battle with a runner-up time of 2:53.00, while Columbia placed third with a 2:55.90.

Team scores:
1. Princeton University 1514
2. Harvard University 1446
3. Columbia University 1135
4. Yale University 1038.5
5. Dartmouth College 768
6. University of Pennsylvania 700
7. Brown University 589.5
8. Cornell University 539

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