The Dartmouth men's swimming and diving team turned in a historic performance at the Ivy League Championship meet over the weekend, securing a fifth place finish in the competition, its highest finish since 1981. The Big Green improved upon its seventh place finish at the Championships last year and set 13 new school records.
The Ivy Championships, hosted by Princeton University at DeNunzio Pool, consisted of 21 swimming and diving events running from Thursday to Saturday. The Tigers took first place honors at the Championships with 1,523.5 points, marking their fourth straight Ivy League title. Harvard University finished second with 1,446 points, followed by Columbia University with 1,107.5 points. Yale University claimed fourth place with 966 points. The Big Green took fifth with 764.5 points, narrowly edging out University of Pennsylvania, which finished with 756 points. Brown University took seventh with 596.5 points, and Cornell University claimed last place with 575.5 points.
The Big Green defeated both Brown and Cornell in dual meets during the regular season but had fallen to Penn in a close meet in January. Placing fifth at the meet and beating Penn were two of the Big Green's goals, according to swimming co-captain Matt Stumpf '12.
Dartmouth's strong showing at the Championships was highlighted by the team setting 13 new school records. With eight individual records falling and all five of the relay teams setting new records, the Big Green had an unprecedented weekend.
"Breaking 13 school records is phenomenal," head coach Jim Wilson said. "To break every relay record we have, in many cases by the exact same personnel, means that how we train and what we focus on in practice is really working. It means that everyone is continuing to get better and improve, which is what you want to see."
The Big Green's exciting weekend was kicked off by a successful first day at the Championships. The team broke six school records on Thursday and posted three NCAA B consideration times, with Nejc Zupan '14 and Will Derdeyn '13 setting school records and making the NCAA cuts in individual events. Zupan garnered consideration in the 200 and 400-yard individual medleys and the 200-yard breastroke, while Derdeyn's performance came in the 50-yard freestyle. The 400-yard medley relay team of Mickey Ahern '12, Zach Doherty '13, Derdeyn and Zupan made the cut for NCAAs while setting a new school record in the process.
"The NCAA B cuts are incredibly exciting and a really good sign for the program moving forward," Stumpf said. "Having two of our relay teams make B cuts is almost unprecedented for us."
Dartmouth closed out the first day of events in sixth place, in front of Brown and Cornell, and headed into Friday with confidence from the first day's performance.
"The first day is momentum building," Wilson said. "When we have a strong showing in the beginning and everyone feels good about how they are swimming and diving, it bodes well for the rest of the meet."
Friday's events were highlighted by an exceptional performance by Zupan, who took the only Big Green first place finish at the Championships. Posting a time of 3:49.73 in the 400-yard individual medley, Zupan set another individual school record and posted an NCAA B consideration time. Zupan had been injured for the second half of the season, making his perform ance even more critical.
The Big Green moved into fifth place after the second day of events, overtaking Penn. Several swimmers posted lifetime bests on the night as well, including Dylan Gabel '14 in the 1,000-yard freestyle, Jay Margherio '13 in the 200-yard freestyle and Stumpf in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Although the Big Green started to lose some steam after the exhaustion of the three-day meet started kicking in, Saturday was another strong day of competition for Dartmouth. Marked by strong individual performances by Matt Long '14, Ahern, Gabel and Zupan, Saturday's events saw more school records fall. Capping off the meet with the fifth new school relay record, the Big Green 400-yard freestyle relay team of Andrew North '14, Ahern, Derdeyn and Doherty swam a 3:02.36 to secure the fifth place finish for Dartmouth.
"Every point counted, so it was really a team effort," Ahern said. "Definitely one of my proudest moments being a part of this team was finishing in fifth place."
The Big Green divers also had strong performances over the weekend, with co-captain Chris Plante '12, Ryan Shelley '15 and Ben Weill '14 making significant contributions to the team's point tally.
"The league is getting consistently more difficult," Plante said. "We posted strong scores this weekend though, higher than last year's, so we were pretty pumped about that."
Dartmouth has risen to the challenge of the increasingly competitive Ivy League, improving upon its seventh place finish last year and eighth place finishes the two years before that.
"It's a great sign for the future," Stumpf said. "It's going to be great to watch. We've made great progress over my four years in the program, and I hope it continues."
The NCAA Zone Diving Championships will take place next weekend in Buffalo, N.Y., and the NCAA Swimming Championships will happen on March 22-24 in Tacoma, Wash.
