Men's Swimming and Diving Takes Second at Ivy League Championships

UPDATED: March 5, 2012, at 9:05 p.m.

After commencing day two of competition with a promising 27-point lead, the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team (6-2, 6-0 Ivy) sank to second place behind No. 24 Princeton (8-0, 7-0) in the 2012 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships, held this weekend held at Princeton.

The Tigers seized this year’s title with 1,523.5 points, while the Crimson trailed in second place (1,446). Columbia claimed third (1,107.5), followed by Yale (966.5), Dartmouth (764.5), Penn (756), Brown (596.5), and Cornell (575.5).

“We swam well. We just came up a little short,” sophomore Chris Satterthwaite said.

This weekend’s result represented Princeton’s fourth consecutive season title and Harvard’s four straight second-place finish.

The Lions posted their greatest point total ever in the championship meet, earning their third straight third-place finish. And the Big Green had its best result since 1981, coming in fifth.

Starting the championship the same way they would finish, the Crimson and the Tigers took turns leading the 200-yard free relay.

Yet just as in the meet, Princeton edged ahead of Harvard, as the Tigers touched the wall first at 1:18.92, winning the event for the fourth consecutive year and swimming the second fastest time in meet history.

The Crimson team—composed of Satterthwaite and classmate Oliver Lee and freshmen Griffin Schumacher and Zachary Walters—trailed by less than a half of a second (1:19.17) while Columbia took third, clocking in at 1:20.49.

“The relays were an area that we were a little weak in, but we knew that coming into the meet,” Satterthwaite said.

In the 500 free, Princeton’s Paul Noelle won his first of three events of the weekend, clocking in at 4:18.92. Yale’s Rob Harder followed with a time of 4:20.66, and Columbia’s Dominik Koll finished third (4:21.68).

In the one-meter dive, Harvard freshman Michael Mosca earned the title with a mark of 359.55 points. Princeton’s Stephen Vines came in a close second (347.65), and Penn senior Jeff Cragg took third.

The Tigers won the final event of the night by logging a DeNunzio Pool and meet record in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:11.38.

But the Crimson finished the day in the lead, 27 points ahead of the Tigers, 471-444. With 289 points, the Bulldogs trailed both teams by more than one hundred points.

In day two of the meet, several pool and meet records were shattered, as the Princeton men stole the lead.

The Tigers opened the day with their third consecutive win in the 200 medley relay and set an Ivy League, meet, and pool record with a time of 1:25.89. Their nearest opponents, Harvard and Yale, battled for second and third, with the Crimson edging out the Bulldogs.

Later that day, Brown posted first- and second-place finishes in the 100 fly when sophomore Tommy Glenn clocked in at 46.73 and freshman Jeffrey Strausser followed narrowly with a time of 47.87.

Glenn’s first-place finish represented the Bears’ first Ivy title in the event in more than a decade.

In the third and final night of the meet, Noelle once again came out on top, winning the 1650 free and earning his third title in as many nights with a pool record of 15:00.16 to extend the Princeton lead.

First-place Harvard finishes in the 100 free and the 400 free relay cut the deficit to 35.5 points and placed the Crimson within striking distance of the Tigers.

But Princeton victories in the three-meter dive, the 200 back, and the 200 breaststroke allowed the Tigers to fend off Harvard and sustain its winning streak.

Princeton closed out the night ahead by a margin of 76.5 points and claimed sole ownership of the 2012 Ivy League title.

“We need to find a way to score a few more points as a team, but all in all it was a nice effort this weekend,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said.

Though the Crimson fell short of first place, it had several impressive performances, securing four first-place individual finishes and setting six new school records.

Satterthwaite furthered Harvard’s campaign, achieving three Ivy League titles in the 50 free, 100 free, and 200 free, meriting a share of the Phil Moriarty Award, given to the meet’s top point-earning swimmer.

“[Earning the award] was definitely something I did not expect going into the meet," said Satterthwaite, who shared the honor with Princeton's Noelle and Jonathan Christensen, who each earned three titles. "I continued to swim well this year.... And it worked out."

—Staff writer Marina E. Watson can be reached at mwatson@college.harvard.edu.