Princeton Holding Off Harvard at EISL Championships

EAST MEADOW, New York, March 3. THE Harvard Crimson won the first four events of the night on Friday at the 2006 Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships, but the Princeton Tigers held on to the lead for the second day. The Tigers have accumulated 882 points, but the Crimson has closed the gap with 841.5 points. With a win in the 800-freestyle relay the Cornell Big Red took over third place from the Columbia Lions.

In the first race of the night, Harvard was led by a strong backstroke leg by senior David Cromwell and set a new EISL meet record in the 200-medley relay with a 1:27.67. In an exciting distance matchup, Harvard freshman Eric Lynch surged ahead at the wall to defeat Princeton freshman Robert Greist by just three-tenths of a second in the 1,000 free. Dave Ashley of Princeton and Henning Fog from Columbia, finished just a second later, grabbing third and fourth, respectively.

Continuing the Harvard onslaught, sophomore Geoff Rathgeber dominated the competition in the 400-yard individual medley, finishing 15 seconds ahead of second place finisher Meir Hasbani of Princeton. Cromwell continued the Crimson success in the 100-yard butterfly. The senior, who won the event last year, recorded a time of 47.42, finishing just ahead of Princeton's Doug Lennox.

Breaking up the Harvard streak, Cornell junior Michael Smit broke his own meet record he had set in the preliminaries in the 200 freestyle and grabbed first place in a time of 1:35.42. Also scoring a first-place finish for the Big Red for the second year in the 100 breaststroke was Cornell junior David McKechnie in a time of 55.66. Adding to his titles, Cromwell took the championship in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 46.99. Cromwell edged out 50 freestyle champion Alex Righi of Yale, who finished at 47.86.

In the final event of the evening, the Cornell Big Red relay team jumped out to an early lead in the 800 freestyle and won by two body lengths over second place Harvard.

2006 EISL Championships
200-yard Medley Relay
1. Harvard, 1:27.67 (Crowell, Rathgeber, Jones, Quinn)
2. Cornell, 1:29.70
3. Navy, 1:30.45
4. Princeton, 1:30.56
5. Yale, 1:31.06
6. Columbia, 1:31.41
7. Penn, 1:32.52
8. Brown, 1:32.79
9. Dartmouth, 1:40.36

1,000-yard Freestyle
1. Eric Lynch, Harvard, 9:10.75
2. Robert Griest, Princeton, 9:10.78
3. Dave Ashley, Princeton, 9:11.20
4. Henning Fog, Columbia, 9:11.69
5. Sam Wollner, Harvard, 9:12.13
6. Kevin Ellis, Dartmouth, 9:21.73
7. Matt Blaszko, Penn, 9:24.39
8. Peter Volosin, Brown, 9:25.45

400-yard Individual Medley
1. Geoff Rathgeber, Harvard, 3:38.11
2. Meir Hasbani, Princeton, 3:53.46
3. Eric Brumberg, Brown, 3:55.08
4. Cedric Cheung-Lau, Columbia, 3:57.03
5. Sami Mardem-Bey, Princeton, 3:57.81
5. Tim Ruse, Princeton, 3:57.81
7. Dennen McCloskey, Yale, 3:59.25
8. Zach Glassman, Columbia, 4:01.17

100-yard Butterfly
1. David Cromwell, Harvard, 47.42
2. Doug Lennox, Princeton, 47.59
3. Bill Jones, Harvard, 48.44
4. Stefano Caprara, 48.98
5. Benjamin Neuwirth, Columbia, 49.01
6. Dan Jones, Harvard, 49.42
7. Ben Dzialo, Yale, 49.65
8. Pat Quinn, Harvard, 49.76

200-yard Freestyle
1. Mike Smit, Cornell, 1:35.42 (EISL record)
2. Tobin White, Columbia, 1:37.15
3. Wesley Newman, Cornell, 1:37.45
4. Andrew Foss, Yale, 1:38.26
5. David Guernsey, Harvard, 1:38.72
6. Hyun Lee, Columbia, 1:38.83
7. Kevin Wakefield, Columbia, 1:41.78
8. Pat Gallager, Penn, 1:41.84

100-yard Breaststroke
1. David McKechnie, Cornell, 55.66
2. Michael Nelson, Columbia, 56.13
3. Bill Cocks, Harvard, 56.61
4. Kevin Kysiak, Navy, 56.78
5. Brian Fiske, Harvard, 56.81
6. Alex Silvester, Penn, 57.54
7. John McGrath, Columbia, 57.75
8. Jon Kaufman, 57.85

100-yard Backstroke
1. David Cromwell, Harvard, 46.99
2. Alex Righi, Yale, 47.86
3. Stefano Caprara, Cornell, 47.97
4. Mike Zee, Princeton, 49.36
5. Philip Baity, Cornell, 50.00
6. Brian Sharkey, Brown, 50.06
7. Kevin Mukri, Navy, 50.49
8. Alan Fishman, Princeton, 50.94

800-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Cornell, 6:33.77 (Newman, Wang, Levan, Smit)
2. Harvard, 6:38.66
3. Columbia, 6:40.59
4. Princeton, 6:43.10
5. Navy, 6:43.46
6. Brown, 6:45.25
7. Yale, 6:46.04
8. Dartmouth, 6:47.95

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