Princeton Claims Ivy League Title

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. March 4. A spirited crowd at the Nassau Aquatic Center Saturday night, mostly sporting orange and black, watched as the Princeton Tigers claimed the 2006 Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships Saturday night in East Meadow, N.Y.

The Tigers maintained their lead in the final day of competition, due in large part to a large number of swimmers in the finals. Despite the fact that there were no Princeton individual winners, the Tigers accumulated 1,393 points. Last year's champion Harvard Crimson, who had four individual titles in the Saturday finals, finished in second place with 1,287 points.

In a tight race for third place, Columbia rallied with 990.50 points, while Cornell ended with 984.50.

The Swimmer of the Meet Award was presented to the three athletes who had three individual titles, Geoff Rathgeber and David Cromwell of Harvard and Michael Smit of Cornell.

The Diver of the Meet Award was given to Danil Rybalko of Harvard, who won both the one-meter and three-meter diving events.

In the first event of the evening and the longest of the entire competition, the 1,650-yard freestyle, the top swimmers coming into the event faced off in a timed final. Freshman Eric Lynch of Harvard, the winner of the 1,000-yard on Friday night, topped the competition in a time of 15:18.67. Closing in behind Lynch were Princeton's Robert Greist and Dave Ashley.

Two-time winner from Friday night and last year's champion, Cromwell once again dominated the competition in the 200-yard backstroke. Cromwell's time of 1:43.17 was a meet and EISL record, breaking the time he posted in the event in 2004. Cromwell will also qualify for the NCAA Championships with his time.

In the 100-yard freestyle, Yale's freshman standout and last night's 50 freestyle champion Alex Righi set an EISL meet and league record in a time of 43.44. Righi also qualified for the NCAA Championship with his time. Last year's winner Will Reinhardt of Princeton touched the wall in second place at 44.22.

A double-winner already at the Championships, Rathgeber won by over two seconds in the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:59.16. Narrowly grabbing second place was Michael Nelson of Columbia, who edged Harvard senior Bill Cocks.

In a heated 200-yard butterfly final, Smit won by just four-tenths of a second over surging finisher Meir Hasbani of Princeton. Smit's title gave him his third first-place finish of the event.

In the finale of the Championship, the 400-yard freestyle relay, the Harvard team of Cromwell, Rathgeber, Mark Knepley and Pat Quinn finished in a time of 2:57.04.

2006 EISL Championships

Final Team Scores
1. Princeton, 1,393
2. Harvard, 1,287
3. Columbia, 990.5
4. Cornell, 984.50
5. Yale, 925
6. Navy, 770
7. Brown, 665
8. Penn, 638.50
9. Dartmouth 327.50

1,650-yard Freestyle
1. Eric Lynch, Harvard, 15:18.67
2. Robert Griest, Princeton, 15:22.48
3. Dave Ashley, Princeton, 15:22.80
4. Henning Fog, Columbia, 15:28.09
5. Sam Wollner, Harvard, 15:30.32
6. Cedric Lau-Cheung, Columbia, 15:39.13
7. Peter Volosin, Brown, 15:39.85
8. Kevin Ellis, Dartmouth, 15:42.62

200-yard Backstroke
1.David Cromwell, Harvard, 1:43.17
2. Stefano Caprara, Cornell, 1:45.95
3. Kevin Mukri, Navy, 1:48.08
4. Mike Zee, Princeton, 1:48.36
5. Jason Degnan-Rojeski, Harvard, 1:48.88
6. Philip Baity, Cornell, 1:49.46
7. Eric Brumberg, Brown, 1:49.67
8. Alan Fishman, Princeton, 1:50.04

100-yard Freestyle
1. Alex Righi, Yale, 43.44
2. Will Reinhardt, Princeton, 44.22
3. Mike Linn, Navy, 44.29
4. Pat Quinn, Harvard, 44.51
5. Joe Smutz, Navy, 44.56
6. Doug Lennox, Princeton, 45.21
7. Mark Knepley, Harvard, 45.25
8. David Guernsey, Harvard, 45.45

200-yard Breaststroke
1. Geoff Rathgeber, Harvard, 1:59.16
2. Michael Nelson, Columbia, 2:01.69
3. Bill Cocks, Harvard, 2:02.96
3. David McKechnie, Cornell, 2:02.96
5. Zach Glassman, Columbia, 2:03.41
6. Rich Bowen, Cornell, 2:05.68
7. Matt Blaszko, Penn, 2:05.70
8. Sami Mardam-Bey, Princeton, 2:06.80

200-yard Butterfly
1. Michael Smit, Cornell, 1:46.11
2. Meir Hasbani, Princeton, 1:46.15
3. Ben Dzialo, Yale 1:48.96
4. Brian Shue, Princeton 1:49.18
5. Dan Eckel, Princeton, 1:49.19
6. Doug Lennox, Princeton, 1:49.54
7. Dan Jones, Harvard, 1:50.11
8. Tim Ruse, Princeton, 1:52.51

3-Meter Diving
1. Danil Rybalko, Harvard, 373.10
2. Kent DeMond, Princeton, 366.75
3. Jeff Lichtenstein, Yale, 330.85
4. Kevin Teague, Navy, 328.60
5. Charlie Razook, Princeton, 297.10
6. Justin Reardon, Columbia, 292.75
7. Stuart Malcom, Princeton, 280.50
8. Andrew Berry, Dartmouth, 256.95

400-yard Freestyle Relay
1. Harvard, 2:57.04 (Cromwell, Rathgeber, Knepley, Quinn)
2. Cornell, 2:58.24
3. Navy, 2:59.86
4. Princeton, 3:00.05
5. Yale, 3:00.08
6. Columbia, 3:01.23
7. Brown, 3:02.20
8. Penn, 3:05.25
9. Dartmouth, 3:07.03

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