Princeton Drowns Aquamen, 138-105

PRINCETON, N.J.--Some holes are way too deep to climb out of, and the Harvard men's swim team slipped into a cavernous one this weekend, falling behind Princeton early in the meet. In the end, the Crimson couldn't escape the Tiger pit at DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, N.J. and headed home with a 138-105 loss and little hope of an Ivy title.

The Harvard swimmers (5-1 EISL, 4-1 Ivy) got off to a slow start in the meet with Princeton (6-0, 5-0), losing the first five swim events of the day to trail by a daunting 74-38 margin at the end of the first half of competition.

The Crimson battled back to take the next four races, however, and Harvard diver Craig Narveson ran away with both the 1-M and 3-M diving contests to bring Harvard within seven points of the Tigers with only two races left. But Princeton staved off the Crimson attack in the next race, the 200-yard breaststroke, by taking the top three spots and clinching a dual meet victory.

"No one could believe [the way Harvard came back]," Harvard Coach Joe Bernal said. "The team showed a lot of heart and determination in coming back. The guys were great today, but we gave them a little too much early on."

Harvard posted some outstanding efforts on the day, setting two new school records while Chris Kovacs and Sean Gouldson qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 100-yard and 200-yard backstrokes, respectively.

Co-captain Greg Tull is now the fastest freestyle sprinter in Harvard history at 20.48 in the 50-yd. and 44.74 in the 100-yd freestyle. Still, Tull's times at these distances weren't the quickest of the day. Ty Nelson of Princeton edged Tull in the 50 by 12 seconds and Harvard's Ed Wagner swam a blistering 44.56 in the anchor leg of the 400-yd. medley relay.

The medley relay was the opening event of the meet and foreshadowed the rest of the day's events. Kovacs burst out of the blocks for a commanding lead on the first leg but Princeton's stars, Nelson Diebel and Ty Nelson, overtook the Crimson in the next two legs of the breaststroke and the butterfly. Harvard's Wagner tried to pull it out for the Crimson with the fastest anchor leg of the event, but the Harvard team fell short by nearly half a second.

The 1000-yard freestyle followed a similar formula with Harvard's Steve Root keeping pace with Mitch Derrick of Princeton early on but eventually letting the Tiger swimmer pull out to a fifteen-yard lead. The Crimson fought back with John Blaney, out in lane seven, who slowly reeled in Derrick while a crowd of about 300 Princeton and Harvard fans were on their feet screaming wildly. On the final lap of the 40-lap race, Blaney and Derrick were even, but the Crimson fell short again, as Derrick touched in at 9:12.84, only .08 seconds ahead of Blaney, who swam his career best.

"Ninety-five percent of the guys swam their best swims of their lives today," Bernal said. "Blaney showed a great deal of competitiveness and character to run that guy down to less than a tenth of a second. They know they can go faster, too. They'll swim even better times."

Consistent with its performances all season, Harvard was stronger in the second half of the meet. Simon Wainwright crushed the rest of the field in the 200-yard butterfly by almost a second-and-a-half. In the 500-yard freestyle, Peterson touched first and Steve Root fell less than half second short of nailing second for the Crimson after a late surge on Princeton's Derrick.

The Crimson's hopes for the meet rested in the 200-yard breaststroke, but Harvard could manage only a fourth place finish behind Princeton's freshman phenom Nelson Diebel, Leroy Kim, and Josh Snyder.

"We got caught on being a little too tentative in the first half of our races," Bernal said. "When we take out the tentative part out of their races, they'll swim even better times."

Tigers, 138-105

in Princeton

400 medley relay

1. Princeton (Rad, Diebel, Nelson, Musselwhite), 3:20.07; 2. Harvard, (Kovacs, Manson, Kidd, Wagner), 3:20.47; 3. Princeton.

1000 freestyle

1. Derrick (P), 9:12.84; 2. Blaney (H), 9:12.92; 3. Root (H) 9:16.07.

200 freestyle

1. Kremenliev (P), 1:39.05; 2. McFadden (P), 1:39.16; 3. Peterson (H), 1:39.44.

50 freestyle

1. Nelson (P), :20.35; 2. Tull (H), :20.48; 3. Wagner (H), :21.00.

200 individual medley

1. Donahue (P), 1:50.77; 2. Snyder (P), 1:51.45; 3. Kovacs (H), 1:51.94.

200 butterfly

1. Wainwright (H), 1:49.18; 2. Donahue (P), 1:50.47; 3. Lorenzen (H), 1:51.66.

100 freestyle

1. Tull (H), :44.74, 2. Kremenliev (P), :45.30; 3. Bailey (P), :45.65.

200 backstroke

1.Gouldson (H), 1:49.88; 2. Kovacs (H), 1:51.76; 3. Lardas (P), 1:52.46.

200 breaststroke

1. Diebel (P), 2:01.58; 2. Kim (P), 2:03.17; 3. Snyder (P), 2:03.95.

500 freestyle

1. Peterson (H), 4:28.22; 2. Derrick (P), 4:29.05; 3. Root (H), 4:29.44.

400 freestyle relay

1. Princeton (Nelson, Bailey, Harper, Kremenliev), 3:01.33; 2. Princeton (Musslewhite, Hargis, Nelson, Donahue), 3:03.81; 3. Harvard.

1-meter diving

1. Narveson (H), 219.20; 2. Iams (P), 200.30; 3. Suess (P), 197.90.

3-meter diving

1. Narveson (H), 221.90; 2. Iams (P), 210.05; 3. McDermott (H) 207.80