Big Al Invitational: Day One

PRINCETON, New Jersey, December 5. SOPHOMORE Megan Waters made quite a splash on the opening day of the Big Al Open by setting, and then resetting, the Princeton record in the 50 free. She and teammate Alicia Aemisegger both picked up Princeton records for the Tigers, who opened the three-day competition in third place behind No. 5 Florida and Utah.

Florida leads the competition with 378 points, while Utah holds second with 268 points. Princeton is third with 225 points, more than 100 points ahead of Ivy League rivals Columbia and Brown. The competition continues through Sunday; a full schedule can be found at the bottom of this story.

The 200 free relay team of Waters, Justina DiFazio, Emily Trautner and Courtney Kilkuts placed third in 1:32.85 to open the competition. Aemisegger, the two-time Ivy League Championships Swimmer of the Meet and an Olympic Trials finalist last summer, won the first individual event of the competition and set a Princeton record by going 4:39.55 in the 500 free. The time is also an NCAA B-cut and a DeNunzio Pool record. Teammate Monika Friedman, also a member of the 2008 NCAA team, finished sixth with a time of 4:53.44.

Courtney Kilkuts won the 200 IM with an NCAA B-cut time of 2:00.30, while freshman Kerry Gruendel placed seventh in 2:03.79. Kilkuts has had impressive performances at the Big Al Open; last year, she set a Princeton record and posted an NCAA A-cut by going 1:59.10.

Waters set a Princeton record in the 50 free during the preliminary session with a time of 22.90, and she broke that record in the final by going 22.83 for the event win. She was the only Tiger swimmer in the final, but she topped the field and just missed an NCAA B-cut.

The night ended with Princeton finishing fourth in the 400 medley relay; the team of Mary Killian, Kilkuts, Waters and Aemisegger finished in a time of 3:46.01.

The three-day competition, held at Princeton's own DeNunzio Pool, is a good early test for the 2009 Ivy League Championships, which will be held in Long Island. Princeton knows it will face extremely tough competition during the final weekend of February and could easily find itself working from behind as the competition unfolds. Head coach Susan Teeter likes to have this type of early-season challenge to test her young team's fortitude and determination before the heart of the tough Ivy League season unfolds.

For the men, a pair of relay victories and two second-place individual performances by sophomore Colin Hanna led the 22nd-ranked Princeton men's swimming and diving team to a terrific opening night at the three-day Big Al Open, held at DeNunzio Pool. Princeton has 311 team points, only 1.5 points behind sixth-ranked Florida.

The night began with a Princeton victory in the 200 free relay. The team of Doug Lennox, Geoff Faux, Colin Cordes and Michael Carter won the event in 1:20.35, an NCAA B-cut time. The time was more than a second faster than Florida's top relay team and gave Princeton an early edge in the competition.

Florida would go ahead in the first individual event of the night, the 500 free, when Gator Jeffrey Raymond set a pool record with a winning time of 4:18.19. Hanna placed second in the event with a B-cut time of 4:21.85, while teammate and senior tri-captain Robert Griest placed 6th in 4:26.92.

Hanna wasted little time recovering from his strong 500 swim and came back with a second-place time of 1:48.92 in the 200 IM. One of the top IM groups annually in the Ivy League, Princeton had three of the top six finishers in the event. Christopher Quemana took fifth in the event with a time of 1:50.73, while Will Schaffer placed sixth in 1:51.70. All three were finalists in the event at the 2008 EISL championships, with Schaffer leading the way with a second-place finish.

Carter was Princeton's top finisher in the 50 free, taking 4th in 20.63. In the final event of the evening, the 400 medley relay team of Lennox, Jon Christensen, Michael Carter and Jon Hartmann placed first in 3:17.51.

Special thanks to Southern Connecticut State for contributing this report.

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