The loss has little effect on either the men's team or women's team in terms of standings. The men's team finishes its regular season with a record of 2-10, 0-8 EISL, and the women wrap up their regular season with a record of 4-7, 1-6 Ivy.
The Tigers' enormous margins of victory were the result of Princeton's roster depth. The events that the Big Green did manage to win were largely negated by Princeton's second- and third-place finishes, and in some events the Tigers managed to place first through third with Dartmouth's top finishers clustered behind.
The Big Green swimmers and divers took eight first place honors out of 32 events across the men's and women's competitions, but the squads did not have a single one-two finish in any of their eight victories.
The meet began with a Big Green relay victory, when the Dartmouth women's "A" relay team of seven swimmers won the 275-yard medley event. The Princeton women, however, used the same event to begin a pattern that would define the day, as the Princeton relay teams claimed second, third and fourth place.
The Big Green men's relay teams did not fare as well in the event, as their "A" squad placed fourth, behind three Tiger teams that all clocked in over three seconds ahead of the top Dartmouth finishers.
The men's team posted its best results in the 100-yard backstroke. Gordon Russell '08 won, clocking in over a second faster than top Princeton junior Stan Buncher. Scott Sorensen '10 and Ethan Benjamin '10 took third and fifth, respectively, as the Big Green claimed 13 out of a possible 19 points up for grabs in the event.
The women's team scored first and third finishes in the 50-yard butterfly. Lizzie Rippe '07 went down and back in 25.92 seconds, with the closest competitor finishing well behind with a time of 27.50. Liz Mancuso '08 touched in a quarter second out of second place, finishing third with a time of 27.75 seconds.
The high point on the day, and perhaps the season, was the performance of Andrew Berry '08. Berry swept the diving events, claiming first place both in the one-meter and three-meter dives. Berry won the one-meter dive handily, and managed to edge out top Princeton diver Michael Papageorge on the tree-meter board.
Berry scored higher in this meet than he did in the match up against Penn on Saturday, Jan. 20, when he also swept the diving events.
After the meet, Berry conceded that Papageorge did many dives that were technically more difficult on the three-meter dive than anything Dartmouth divers attempted. This, however, did not affect Berry's performance.
"At meets I don't watch divers that I know will score close to or better than me," he said. "The only thing within my control is how well I concentrate and execute my own dives, so I focus on that instead."
Evan Sparks '07 scored points for the Big Green on his one-meter dives, and Charlie Knape '10 added to Dartmouth's total with his personal-best performance from three meters.
The Big Green men's relay teams claimed one event, the 600-yard freestyle relay. The team of Kevin Ellis '09, Joe Braunreuther '08, Andrew Ballentine '09 and Cary Stathopoulos '10 out swam its opponents to take top points in the event. The 12-lap race was ultimately decided by .34 seconds, as Stathopoulos was able to beat his Princeton counterpart to the wall for the victory.
Drew Wenzel '08 and Ellis earned individual victories in the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle events, respectively.
Both the men and women's teams will travel to Princeton, N.J., again for their championship meets in the upcoming weeks. The women will compete in the Ivy Championships beginning Thursday, Feb. 15, and the men will compete in the EISL Championship on Thursday, Feb. 22.
