The men's swimming meet against Princeton on Saturday promised to be difficult from the onset. In the end, Dartmouth lost 168-105, lowering its record to 1-8-1, 0-5-1 in the E.I.S.L.
The teams followed a unique event lineup that included the 800 I.M., the swimming equivalent of absolute pain.
"The 800 I.M. was quite an experience, and I hope to do it again next year," David Kramer '96 said. "I think the unique meet schedule was a nice breather in the middle of a season where we have lost so many close meets. I hope the fact that we are one of the only teams who has trained through the whole season without resting and shaving pays off in the end when we rest for our final meet(s)."
The meet opened with the 800 I.M. Princeton swept the top two spots, but Kramer finished a close third after opening with a strong 200 butterfly. Princeton also took 1-2 in the 200 freestyle while Doug Doucet '98 led the Big Green, finishing third in 1:49.28.
Grier Laughlin '96 challenged Princeton's Biddle in the 100 backstroke, placing second in 54.75. Tommy Slabaugh '96 came alive with his best meet of the season. Slabaugh took fourth in the 100 backstroke with a season best 55.56. Ben Lannon '96 was involved in the closest race of the meet against Princeton's Aaron Craig. Lannon finished second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.02, only fourth-tenths behind Craig.
On the diving board, the Big Green found themselves facing a powerful Princeton contingent. Grant Cerny '95 managed to take third place with 222.90, but Jeremy Turk '97 turned in perhaps the best performance.
Turk surpassed his previous season best by 22 points, finishing less than a point behind Mark Devlin '98 who took fifth with 189.60. On the three meter, Princeton's second diver edged out Cerny again .
Cerny scored 229.73 points, again finishing third. Alex Katz '98 repeated his fourth place performance on the one meter board, again finishing fourth with 210.25. Devlin also repeated his fifth place performance by scoring 201.38.
The final individual event was the 100 I.M., where Captain Ross Downey '95 found himself edged out by Laughlin and Jonathan Kenyon '97. Kenyon took third with a 55.32 and Laughlin took fifth with a 55.85.
The meet ended as Princeton broke the pool record in the 200 freestyle relay by more than two seconds, winning in 1:24.69. Dartmouth took third with a 1:29.70.
The Big Green haven't lost hope for the season yet. " I think that the team is swimming well as a unit and that will eventually pay off at Easterns. We have worked hard and that work will show at the end of the season,." Jonathan Hurst '98 said.
The Big Green's next meet is Saturday at noon against Army. The team is looking to break its seven meet losing streak and win its first E.I.S.L. competition of the year.
