Men’s Swimming, Diving to Take on Yale for League Title

This year’s edition of the annual men’s swimming and diving HYP meet will be missing a crucial element – Princeton. With the Tigers’ season suspended, the contest will only feature Harvard and Yale.

Despite Princeton’s absence, the meet will not be lacking in importance or competitive racing. Both the Crimson (9-0, 5-0 Ivy League) and the Bulldogs (9-1, 5-0 Ivy) will enter the Kiphuth Pool in New Haven this weekend without a loss in the Ancient Eight, meaning that one team will emerge as the conference dual champion, and the other will walk away with its first league defeat of the season.

“We are currently undefeated in the Ivy League, and we intend for it to stay that way,” senior Christian Carbone said. “We are hungry and focused, and we have been working very hard all year to achieve our goals.”

In December, the Tigers had the remainder of their season canceled by the Princeton athletic department after the discovery that vulgar, racist, and misogynistic materials had been disseminated amongst team members, largely over a university-sponsored mailing list.

However, the Tigers’ absence will not impact Harvard’s strategy.

“The cancellation of Princeton’s season has not affected our training plans or race plans,” senior Christian Carbone said. “Although we won’t be competing against Princeton this weekend or at the Ivy League Championships, we intend to go into these competitions with the same mentality that we would have if we were racing Princeton: that is, to underestimate no one, to give every race our all, and to have fun.”

With Princeton out of the mix, the fight for Ivy League dual season supremacy comes down to the Crimson and Yale. History is not on the Bulldogs’ side, as Yale has not topped Harvard in the regular season since 1992. Nonetheless, this year’s Bulldogs lineup is talented, and has picked up only one defeat, to Penn State in January.

Yale junior standout Kei Hyogo has been essential to the Bulldogs’ success. The Yokohama, Japan native has won at least one event at every meet he’s entered this season and hasn’t missed out on a top-three spot in a single race.

Yale has also found success in the diving events, led by freshman Chris LaBella. The rookie took top marks in the one-meter dive in the team’s last meet against Cornell and has only ended up out of podium position once in his debut season.

The Bulldogs duo is backed up by a Yale squad that has been performing well across the board, with 17 different swimmers and divers capturing wins so far this season.

The Crimson will hope to find an answer to the Bulldogs’ talent in its deep squad and accomplished freshman class.

Harvard reached nine wins for the third time in three seasons with a victory over Boston College on January 21st, beating the Eagles behind a team-wide effort. Such strong performances across the squad have become the norm for the Crimson.

The team’s success in relay events is representative of its depth. Harvard has not lost a single relay race at a dual meet this season, and the Crimson is likely to provide a formidable challenge for Yale’s relay lineups this weekend.

Harvard has also benefited from a talented freshman class. First-year Dean Farris has been particularly effective for the Crimson, collecting 20 victories so far this season. The team will likely look to Farris and his classmates, including standouts Daniel Chang and Raphael Marcoux to make an impact in their first meet against the Bulldogs.

Harvard’s divers had had a strong season as well. Junior David Pfeiffer, who qualified in December for the NCAA zone championships, and classmate Bobby Ross have picked up a number of wins and will seek to end LaBella’s hot streak this weekend.

As the Crimson heads into its final regular meet of the year, athletes across the team share a sense of excitement and a common set of goals.

“Heading into this meet, we want to focus on the things we can control such as swimming fast individually and performing personal bests on the diving boards,” Chang said. “We’re really excited to see where all lot our hard work this season has led us.”

—Staff writer Sam Christenfeld can be reached at schristenfeld@college.harvard.edu