Men's Swimming and Diving Falls Short at Ivy League Championships, Finishes Second

­Coming into the 2016 Ivy League Championships, the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team had one thing on its mind: redemption. The Crimson’s only losses in the last two years have come at the hands of Princeton, and this year’s conference championships offered Harvard a chance to take back the advantage. Despite entering the meet facing heavy odds, the Crimson almost pulled off what seemed to be impossible at the beginning of the meet.

Harvard (9-1, 6-1 Ivy League) held a close lead over the Tigers (7-0, 7-0) until the fourth-from-last event of the meet, but a late surge saw Princeton edge out the Crimson, 1520.5-1499.

This weekend’s win for the Tigers at the Katherine Moran Coleman Pool in Providence, R.I. marked the second time in as many years that Princeton has topped Harvard for bragging rights among the Ancient Eight.

“We were expected to lose this meet by a lot,” co-captain Christian Yeager said. “We were heavily the underdogs, and we fought our way to one of the closest, most exciting meets of the year. Every swimmer stepped up and fought their heart out to try to bring us a championship that we had no business competing for.”

No one would have expected the final result after the first two days of the meet. The Crimson jumped out to a blazing start, with the 200 free relay team of juniors Paul O’Hara and Max Yakubovich, sophomore Steven Tan, and freshman Sebastian Lutz earning top marks in the first event.

The group would reassemble for the 400 medley relay, with sophomore Shane McNamara in for O’Hara, clocking in second at 3:10.56. Not to be outdone, O’Hara went on to pick up an individual gold of his own in the 50 free.

On the boards, sophomore David Pfeiffer saw his run of victories snapped but still ended up second in the one-meter event and fourth in the three-meter dive.

As the first day came to a close, Harvard held a close lead over Princeton, with the rest of the field already far behind.

The Crimson would retain the advantage on the second day, exploding out of the gates yet again and taking podium finishes in five of the first six events.

Mirroring Thursday’s result, the 200 medley relay team of Tan, Yakubovich, McNamara, and O’Hara outpaced Princeton’s A squad to capture top marks in the first final of the second day. Yakubovich would then earn his second gold medal of the evening in the 100 butterfly.

Freshman Logan Houck added to Harvard’s momentum with a third-place result in the 1000 free, and junior Aly Abdel Khalik in the 200 free and McNamara in the 100 breast each chipped in a silver medal finish to stretch the Crimson’s lead even further.

However, on the final day, Princeton began to edge closer to Harvard in the team standings. The Crimson did its best to hold the Tigers off, but finished ahead of Princeton in only two of the seven events during Saturday’s competition.

Harvard got its lone win of the last day from co-captain Jacob Luna in the 200 fly. The senior mounted a furious comeback in the final 50 yards to touch the wall first in 1:44.27.

“The best swim I’ve seen in my four years here was Luna’s 200 fly,” Yeager said. “In the spirit of the meet, he had no business winning that event and he brought us within striking distance to try to win this meet. That was the single greatest swim of the meet and I’m sure everyone in the Ivy League would agree.”

Junior Jack Manchester also collected a silver medal in the 200 back, but it would not be enough to derail the momentum Princeton had built up.

Entering the last event, the Tigers needed a top-two result to capture the overall title, and Princeton senior Sandy Bole touched the wall first to secure the victory and spell out heartbreak for the Crimson for the second year in a row.

Despite the disappointment of this weekend’s result, Harvard is already looking forward to what the future holds for the team.

“We hope to score as many points as possible [at NCAAs] to keep pushing Harvard’s name towards the top amongst other elite Division I swimming schools,” sophomore Koya Osada said. “Next year, the team’s primary objective will be to recapture the Ivy League crown, and we are fortunate to have the opportunity to do this in our home pool.”

“The future is extremely bright for our team,” Yeager added.

—Staff writer Sam O.M. Christenfeld can be reached at sam.christenfeld@thecrimson.com.