With the exception of Andrew Berry '08, who has qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving meet, a qualifier for the NCAA Championships, this is the team members' last meet of the season.
Cornell, the regular-season EISL champion fresh off of a perfect regular-season campaign for the first time in six decades, is the favorite to win the title. The Big Red will be led by senior Dave McKechnie, who has been phenomenal in the breast stroke this season. However, the Big Red men do not have an uncontested shot at the championships, as there are two schools nipping right at their heels. Traditional EISL swimming powerhouses Princeton and Harvard each gave Cornell a run for its money in the round-robin portion of the season, and will look to pull out an upset.
If the Big Red can win the meet on Sunday, it will be the first time since 1972 that neither the Tigers nor the Crimson have claimed the EISL crown. It would also mark the first time in Cornell's history that the Big Red took home the EISL Championships.
The Big Green men (2-10, 0-8 EISL), whose only wins have come against non-conference foes Boston University and the University of Maine, will not be in the running to win the meet. Dartmouth does not have the depth to score multiple swimmers in each event, a crucial component to winning a big meet, but the team will stack the relays in order to compete with the other schools and produce fast times.
However, the squad will look to swim its best times, since this is the most important meet of the year and the team has gotten ample rest over the past two weeks. The squad is looking to break several school records in the meet.
Several individuals are poised to make a big splash at the meet. Andrew Ballentine '09 and Kevin Ellis '09 in the freestyle and Gordon Russell '08 in the backstroke are some Big Green swimmers who could score points.
Co-captain Brent Butler '07 believes that the squad should perform well because the swimmers will be fresh.
"We've been cutting down on practice and tapering. In January and the early part of February, we worked pretty hard and so we should see the times drop," Butler said. "In this meet, we should see some strong individual performances and we've put together some relays to go after school records, such as our 800-yard freestyle relay."
Butler added that he is looking forward to seeing what the Class of 2010 can do in their first championship meet.
"For the freshmen, it's going to be their first meet where they've tapered, so we're excited to see what they can do and we may see some phenomenal swims," Butler said.
As for the divers, they will be looking to make the finals and score points. Berry, one of the best divers in the Ivy League, has a great shot at making the finals in both the one-meter springboard and the three-meter platform dives. He will be joined by co-captain Evan Sparks '07, Dan Weisman '08 and newcomer Charlie Knape '10.
Sparks was optimistic about the potential impact that the divers could make at the meet.
"Berry should kick some butt as usual, and our new diver, Knape, has been inconsistent this season but could have a big performance this weekend," Sparks said.
Both Butler and Sparks expressed their excitement for the last meet of their swimming careers.
"It's going to be a horror show," Butler said. "We're going to wreck everyone."
