Princeton Moves to Front of EISL Championships

PRINCETON, New Jersey, February 22. PRINCETON put five people in the 200 IM final and picked up two second-place finishes to build a sizable lead over both Harvard and Cornell at the end of day one of the 2007 EISL championships at DeNunzio Pool. Sophomore Will Schaffer placed second in the 200 IM and freshman Michael Papageorge took second in the 1-meter diving competition for Princeton, which ends the day with 442 team points. Harvard stands in second with 353.5 points, while Cornell is third with 304 points.

Just like last year, Princeton used its depth to build an early lead. While the Tigers didn't end Thursday with an individual title, their quantity of finalists keyed the first-day edge.

It wasn't the ideal start for Princeton, which finished sixth in the 200 free relay. The team of Mike Carter, Mike Baity, Will Schaffer and Doug Lennox finished the event in 1:22.15, while Cornell edged Harvard for the win and the early lead.

The Big Red built on that advantage in the 500 free, as Cornell picked up first- and second-place finishes from Mike Smit and Wes Newman. Princeton bounced back with a sixth-place finish in 4:28.00, and David Ashley picked up eighth in 4:32.30.

The first Princeton surge of the weekend came in the third event, the 200 IM. While Harvard's Geoff Rathgeber won the event, Princeton was the real winner by placing five in the final. Schaffer took second in 1:48.53, and 2006 All-America Meir Hasbani took third in 1:50.01. Tim Ruse (fourth, 1:50.90), Chris Quemena (seventh, 1:51.11) and Jon Hartmann (eighth, 1:51.51) helped the Tigers grab the overall championship lead.

Carter claimed eighth in the 50 free (20.80) for the final individual swimming event of the night. The lone diving event was held on the 1-meter board, and Princeton put two in the top five. Papageorge finished second with 294.85 points, while Stuart Malcolm placed fifth with 280.60 points.

The team of Mike Zee, Easton Chen, Lennox and Carter finished third in the 400 medley relay in a time of 3:18.16.

Friday's preliminaries will begin at 11 a.m., while the finals will begin at 6 p.m. All of Thursday's times, as well as the Friday schedule, can be found by clicking on the link above. All sessions will be available online by signing up with the Tiger Zone, which can be accessed on the front page of GoPrincetonTigers.com.

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