Yale
The Yale women's swimming and diving team ended the second day of the 2015 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships within striking distance of the lead. The Bulldogs are in second place with 915.5 points— nine points behind Harvard, and one point ahead of Princeton. Yale claimed first or second place in all but two of Fridays events.
Yale kicked off Friday's finals with another extraordinary relay performance, winning the 200-yard medley relay and setting another Blodgett Pool record in the process. Yale's A team of freshmen Heidi VanderWel, Pauline Kaminski, Maddy Zimmerman and sophomore Kina Zhou finished in 1:40.34. They won an extremely fast heat, in which the top four teams broke the previous pool record of 1:41.05. The all-underclassman relay team from Yale could easily return to Ivies next year, and attempt to break its own record.
Junior Eva Fabian and freshman Cailley Silbert brought the Bulldogs an impressive 1-2 finish in the the 1,000-yard freestyle. Fabian's race was Yale's first individual event victory of the meet. She finished in 9:46.60, 1.9 seconds ahead of Silbert. Sophomore Isla Hutchinson-Maddox was close behind in fifth place, and junior Casey Lincoln added 16 points to Yale's total with an 11th place finish.
Yale regained first place after an impressive showing in the 400-yard IM. Sophomore Sydney Hirschi finished second with a time of 4:16.03. Junior Emma Smith rounded out the A final, finishing eighth. Freshman Danielle Liu swam in the B-final, but recorded the third fastest time in the finals (4:17.78) in her ninth-place finish. Senior Jacqui Levere finished in thirteenth place, achieving a new personal best time of 4:23.68. These four finishes gave Yale a 659-636 Yale over Harvard.
Zimmerman brought Yale another first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly, duplicating her prelims time of 52.90. Freshman Amy Zhao and VanderWel added points by finishing 15th and 22nd, respectively. Despite Zimmerman's victory, Princeton benefitted the most from the event by taking four of the top eight spots, and moved ahead of Harvard into second place.
Zhou and sophomore Olivia Jameson represented Yale in the A-final of the 200-yard freestyle. Zhou finished second with a time of 1:48.02, and Jameson tied for fifth place with a time of 1:49.78. Sophomore Anna Wujciak took 17th place, winning the C final with a time of 1:50.96.
Kaminski kept Yale on the medal podium by winning the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing in 1:02.10. Junior Ali Stephens-Pickeral took seventh place.
Harvard bounced back in the 100-yard backstroke; the Crimson placed four swimmers in the A final, and achieved a 1-2 finish in the event. VanderWel was Yale's top finisher, taking eighth place. Sophomore Michelle Chintanaphol finished 12th. After this event, Harvard led Yale by a score of 870.5-859.5.
Freshman McKenna Tennant represented Yale in the three-meter diving. She took seventh place with a score of 235.45.
Yale finished the Friday session with a second-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Liu, Zhou, Jameson and Fabian finished the race in 7:15.38, just .8 behind the winning team from Princeton.
With only ten points separating the top three teams, the final round of events on Saturday promises to bring the Championships to a thrilling conclusion. Prelims will begin at 11:00 a.m., followed by finals at 6:00 p.m.
Dartmouth
After day two of the 2015 Ivy League Championship at Harvard’s Blodgett Pool, the Dartmouth women’s swimming and diving team is now sitting in eighth place with 391.5 points. Cornell is within reach in seventh with 409.
Junior Kendese Nangle led the team with her third-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.78, breaking her own Dartmouth record of 54.88 from 2013.
To open the second day of finals, the Big Green placed eighth in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:43.81. The relay, which was made up of Nangle, sophomore Maddie Dunn, and juniors Emily Holt and Charlotte Kamai, touched just over half a second behind Cornell’s relay.
Junior Olivia Samson and freshman Hayley Winter got things started in the 1,000-yard freestyle, coming in 17th and 18th place with times of 10:15.25 and 10:16.14, respectively. Fellow freshman Caroline Filan placed 25th in 11:08.56.
In the 400-yard IM, freshman Taylor Yamahata improved by almost three seconds to take 20th with a time of 4:29.04. Dunn placed 23rd in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:06.73, dropping almost half a second from prelims. Swimming the 100 back alongside Nangle was Orellana, who took 15th with a 56.37, and Holt, who was 23rd in 58.34.
A sea of Dartmouth swimmers competed in the 100-yard butterfly, with senior Valerie Orellana leading the way with a 16th-place finish in 56.35. Freshman Katie Altmayer took 19th in 56.10, senior Rebecca Butler was 21st with a 56.16 and Holt placed 23rd in 56.57.
Freshman AnnClaire MacArt dropped half a second off her seeding in the 200-yard freestyle to touch with a time of 1:49.98 and take seventh. Senior Siobhan Hengemuhle and junior Maddie Wall came in 14th and 15th with times of 1:51.62 and 1:51.65, respectively, while Kamai was 20th in 1:51.68.
On the 3-meter diving board, senior Kendall MacRae was 14th with a score of 238.85, improving on her performance from prelims by a handful of points. The Big Green wrapped up finals by coming in sixth place in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 7:26.79. Composed of MacArt, Samson, Wall and Altmayer, the relay out-touched Cornell by almost three seconds.
