Lichtenstein Takes Home the 3m

Jeff Lichtenstein ('08, Yale) ruined my bold prediction. I had predicted a major upset tonight and I was leaning toward the 3m diving competition as the mode to deliver the bold prediction. I thought that an unknown quantity, most notably freshman Mike Papageorge ('10, Princeton), would come out of nowhere to win the whole thing.

That is until I saw Jeff Lichtenstein dive in the finals.

Although Papageorge proved to the EISL competition that he belonged in the finals as a freshman, it was Lichtenstein that masterfully crafted a program chock full of difficulty and precision. His routine placed him comfortably in first place going into the last dive. However, Papageorge made it very interesting by hitting his final dive to high scores. His statement dive meant that Lichtenstein would need to not only choose a high degree of difficulty on his final dive, but also hit it.

And Lichtenstein did just that.

He selected a dive with a high degree of difficulty registering 3.5 and just narrowly missed nailing it with a slight rotation issue as he entered the water. However, he had certainly done enough to outscore Papageorge and win the competition, by a margin of 359.00 to 347.45.

Excellent spectacle, gentlemen.

Righi Holds Off Mukri to Take 100 Back

Alex Righi ('09, Yale) held off a late challenge from Kevin Mukri ('07) of the Naval Academy to take the maximal points in the event that saw five (5) sub-50 second times registered. First place is certainly not a new experience for Righi, who has already won events this year and has been on the podium in year's past, but it should be noted that Mukri's race was the highest placement by an individual swimmer from the Naval Academy to this point.

The final 25 yards of Mukri's swim propelled him from 4th place up to 2nd place and saw his time of 48.61 only bettered by Righi's 48.01. He was closing the gap with Righi during every subsequent stroke.

Yale's Righi Ties Pool Record in the 50 Free

Alex Righi ('09, Yale) sprinted to victory with a blistering clip in the 50 Freestyle. Righi, for all intents and purposes, left his competition in the dust by .75 seconds.

In a nutty night of competition, it would only seem fitting that the shortest race in distance and quickest in time would set up to arguably be the most convincing blowout. I'm sure that Geoff Rathgeber ('09, Harvard) would put up a pretty convincing argument from his dismantling in the 200IM, but to win in such a short distance by such a convincing margin is pretty impressive.

Righi's 19.68 tied the DeNunzio Pool mark set last year by Tennessee's Barry Murphy.

Yale Sprints to Victory in the 400 Free Relay

In the final event of the competition, the Yale Relay team of Jane Kim ('10), Alexis Mann ('09), Moira McCloskey ('10), and anchor Meg Gill ('07) outswam strong contingents from other schools to take the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay.

The team's time of 3:23.16 was the 4th fastest time in history. It was a dramatic finish to a record breaking meet.

Congratulations ladies on a fantastic swim!

Hart Spoils McCloskey 3-peat; Sets Meet Mark

Lindsay Hart (Harvard, '09) swam to victory in the 200 Backstroke in a meet record time of 1:58.58. In the process, she spoiled a bid by Yale senior Moira McCloskey to become a 3-time champion in the event.

McCloskey Successfully Defends

Moira McCloskey (Yale, '09) has joined to ranks of storied repeat champions as she turned away the competition to keep her 2005-06 title for 2006-07. McCloskey staved off a challenge from Lindsay Hart of Harvard ('09) to retain her title, while lowering her winning time from 56.34 in the 2006 Women's Ivies to 55.62.

Congratulations Moira on a well deserved 2nd consecutive championship swim.