Princeton Sweeps Cornell, Penn

WOMEN

The 2009-10 Princeton women's swimming and diving team extended its program win to 26 by sweeping Cornell and Penn in the Ivy League opener at DeNunzio Pool. Double victories by Alicia Aemisegger and Aislinn Smalling highlighted the Tiger victory, which continues the strong start for Princeton. Princeton defeated Cornell 167-122 and Penn 160.5-128.5. The Quakers topped the Big Red 172-128 to round out the tri-meet.

Princeton opened the meet by winning the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:44.78. The winning team of Megan Waters, Sarah Furgatch, Alicia Aemisegger and Emily Trautner topped the Princeton ‘B’ team of Alexa Powers, Courtney Kilkuts, Carter Stephens and Kerry Gruendel by more than two seconds; the Tigers ended up taking three of the top four spots in the relay.

Sophomore Aislinn Smalling won the 1000 in 10:08.06, while teammate Lauren Benjamin placed second in the event. The Tigers followed that with a 1-2-3 finish in the 200 free; senior co-captain Alicia Aemisegger won the event in 1:46.96, while teammates Ming Ong and Kathy Qu placed second and third, respectively.

Cornell went 1-2 in the 100 back, while Princeton’s Mary Killian placed third in 59.15. Penn followed with a win in the 100 breast, while Princeton’s Furgatch took second in 1:04.58, less than .3 of a second off the winning time.

Stevens won the 200 fly in 2:03.04, while Princeton teammates Courtney Kilkuts (2:05.13) and Nicole McAndrew (2:05.35) finished second and third in the event. Junior Megan Waters won the 50 free in 23.15 and followed up quickly by winning the 100 free in 51.31.

Ong won the 200 back in 2:05.22 and Caitlin Baran followed with a third-place finish in the 200 breast (2:23.04). Smalling won her second event of the night, the 500 free, in a time of 4:58.35; McAndrew (4:58.57) and Furgatch (5:03.10) followed to give Princeton another 1-2-3 sweep.

Aemisegger won the 100 fly in 55.00 and the 200 IM in 2:00.45, more than six seconds faster than the rest of the field. Furgatch placed second in a time of 2:06.74, while Gruendel took third in 2:09.13.

Christina Kirkwood won the one-meter diving competition with 233.10 points, while Carolyn Littlefield placed second with 227.05 points. Freshman Bryna Tsai won the three-meter event with 257.20 points.

Princeton concluded the tri-meet by winning the 400 free relay; the team of Waters, Trautner, Qu and Kilkuts won the event in 1:35.84.

Princeton is now off until the first weekend of December, when it will compete at the Bucknell Invitational; that tri-meet will include the Ivy League dual against Brown. Princeton will return to DeNunzio Pool during the final weekend of January to host the annual H-Y-P meet.

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Jon Christensen won three events while three Tiger teammates won two as Princeton topped Penn 193-102 and Cornell 191-104.

Princeton opened the meet by winning the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:32.37, .2 of a second faster than Cornell’s top team. The foursome of Kaspar Raigla, Jon Christensen, Mike Monovoukas and Geoff Faux posted the winning time and got the Tigers off on the right foot.

Reigning Ivy League 500 free champion Travis McNamara won the 1000 in 9:33.35, topping teammate Patrick Biggs by five seconds. Senior tri-captain Christopher Quemena won a thriller over Jon Hartmann by .03 of a second to win the 200 free (1:40.08).

Raigla, who has gotten his freshman season off to a strong start over the last two weeks, won the 100 back in 50.79, while medley relay teammate Christensen won the 100 breast in 56.09.

Bryan Tay won his first individual event as a Princeton Tiger by winning the 200 fly in 1:50.17, less that one second faster than his Cornell challenger, while Faux (21.01) held off freshman teammate Andres Tung (21.08) to win the 50 free.

A break in the swimming allowed senior diver Daniel Dickerson a chance to remind people of how he broke through at the 2009 Ivy League Championships. Dickerson won the 3-meter diving event in 303.20, while freshman teammate Stevie Vines posted a strong second-place score of 297.75.

Quemena earned his second win of the night by topping Tay and Tung in a time of 45.68 in the 100 free. Cornell picked up its first win when Christopher Keady win the 200 back in 1:52.61, but Cordes added a second-place finish in 1:52.86.

Christensen became a double winner by taking the 200 breast in 2:01.81, more than three and a half seconds faster than the rest of the field. McNamara won his specialty, the 500, in 4:34.21 to become a third Princeton double-winner, and Tay quickly followed as a fourth by taking the 100 fly in 49.64.

Penn earned its only win of the night when diver Jeff Cragg, a top-three finisher in both events at the 2009 league meet, won the 1-meter competition with 283.0 points. Vines placed second with 274.4 points, while Dickerson and senior Michael Papageorge took third and fourth.

Christensen battled Quemena for the first triple winner and held off his senior teammate in the 200 IM; Christensen’s winning time of 1:50.84 topped Quemena by less than half a second, while nobody else finished within three seconds.

The team of Faux, Matt Lamonaca, Mike Monovoukas and Will Lawley finished the night by winning the 400 free relay in a time of 3:07.51.

Princeton will be off for Thanksgiving weekend and return to the pool in two weeks for the Bucknell Open. That meet will also count as the dual meet against Ivy League rival Brown.