Crimson Takes Second at Ivy Champs

The Harvard men’s swimming and diving team couldn’t make a big enough splash this past weekend, as the Princeton Tigers swam their way to the Ivy League Championship.

The Crimson came in second place behind Princeton (7-0) at the three-day meet in Princeton’s Denunzio Pool, matching last season’s finish at the same event. Harvard finished ahead of the six other Ivy League teams, beating third-place Columbia by nearly 350 points and the University of Pennsylvania by over 380 points.

While the Crimson was looking to beat the Tigers this season and finish in first, many team members were still happy with the result and the improvements that the squad had made since last season. Harvard (7-2) finished with 1,341.5 points in the Thursday-to-Saturday meet, while Princeton earned a total of 1,552.5 points.

“I think we’ve improved since last season,” junior Jordan Diekema said. “We were more cohesive and more motivated as a team. We were the underdogs, but we still felt that we had a chance to beat Princeton.”

The Crimson started off the event on the first day with some solid finishes, but did not come out quite strong enough as it ended the day with 317 points, already trailing behind Princeton’s 423.5 points. Co-captain Alex Meyer secured the first event win for Harvard with a time of 4:22.98 in the 500-yard freestyle, an NCAA-qualifying time.

Sophomore Robert Newell finished sixth in 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:48.87, adding 24 points to his team’s total.

Harvard also had good results from its diving team, with freshman Michael Stanton and junior Zac Ranta coming in first and seventh, respectively, in the three-meter diving finals. Stanton’s effort was good enough for an NCAA “A” cut.

“The first day, we came out a little too tense and nervous because we had high expectations,” co-captain Tommy Gray said. “We took a big hit that first day, but we had a great meeting after the final session and we were a ton better the next two days.”

The Crimson held on to second place after the second day of competition but could not catch up to the dominant Tigers. Princeton increased its lead by 61.5 points to maintain the first-place position with 1.027.5 points to Harvard’s 859.5 points.

“The first day was a bit rough, and we started out a bit slow,” junior Jordan Diekema said. “I think the team got better as the meet progressed.”

The highlight for the Crimson on Friday came when Meyer and junior Blake Lewkowitz finished one-two in the 1,650-yard freestyle to pick up a combined 60 points for the team. Stanton took home his second title of the weekend in the one-meter diving competition, making an NCAA “A” cut in this event as well. Diekema also finished first in the 100-yard backstroke.

“I was pretty happy with my performance on Friday,” Diekema said. “I had been out of the water for four months this season due to health issues, so I felt I did well considering the circumstances.”

Harvard tried to improve on the third day of the meet and surpass the Tigers, but even strong finishes in the distance events could not do the job, as Princeton swam to a first-place finish. Meyer won the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:01.87, almost nine seconds ahead of second place.

“That was just a few seconds off of my best time,” Meyer said. “It was my last race of my collegiate career, excluding the NCAA Championships, so it was good to finish strong.”

Meyer was also given two individual awards at the end of the meet for being the career-high point swimmer in the Ivy League and the meet-high point swimmer. Stanton took home the award for the top-scoring diver at the meet.

“It was an honor to receive those awards,” Meyer said. “I put in a lot of work in the last four seasons with this team, and it feels good, because I worked hard for this.”

The Crimson turns its focus onto the NCAA Zone Diving Competition in Piscataway, N.J. next weekend and the NCAA Championships two weeks after that.

“I’m looking to get back in the water and do a lot of work for the next two weeks [to prepare for the NCAA Championship],” Meyer said. “Hopefully, I can find a way to improve my time by a few seconds to win the title.”