Courtesy: Beverly SchaeferThe 22nd-ranked Princeton men's swimming and diving team will conclude the 2012-13 regular season Friday at 6 pm when it travels to Uris Pool in New York City to take on Columbia. It will also serve as the final dual meet for the 11 members of the Class of 2013.
Princeton is 6-1 overall, 5-1 in the Ivy League, and moved into the Top 25 after an impressive performance during H-Y-P weekend. Though 16th-ranked Harvard won the meet, Princeton posted enough improved times to feel that its team is on the right track to peak at the 2013 Ivy League Championships, held March 7-9 in Providence.
The improvement was noted in the latest Endless Pools/CollegeSwimming.com Top 25, which ranks teams based on their top performances over the preceding month. Princeton's performance last weekend was ranked fifth overall, one spot higher than Harvard.
The Tigers will look to conclude their regular season with a victory over an improving Columbia team Friday night. Columbia has one of the top 100 fly specialists in the league in sophomore David Jakl, whose time of 48.50 is currently second-best in the Ivies. Sophomore Dominik Koll won two individual events last weekend in a dual victory over Patriot League champion Navy.
Princeton currently has the Ivy League leader in both back events (En-Wei Hu-Van Wright in the 100, Connor Maher in the 200), as well as the 200 free (Sandy Bole). The Tigers' greatest strength, though, is their depth; the team has at least two of the Ivy League's top five times in 10 different individual events.
