Eleanor Sun Leads Princeton to Fourth Straight Ivy League Crown
Eleanor Sun booked automatic berths to the NCAA Championships in three events in powering Princeton to a fourth consecutive Ivy League championship.
Princeton finished with 1,432 points, leading the Ancient 8 at the women’s Ivy League Championships at Brown’s Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center. Penn vaulted from fifth last year to second this year, up from fifth the previous year. Harvard edged Brown by 14.5 points for third place.
Women’s Ivy League Championships Team Results
- Princeton University 1432
- University of Pennsylvania 1204
- Harvard University 1153.5
- Brown University 1137
- Yale University 840
- Cornell University 614.5
- Columbia University 550.5
- Dartmouth College 523.5
Sun accounted for three of 11 automatic berths to NCAAs to conference champions. She also took down one of the oldest records on the books with her time of 4:05.55. That takes down the 13-year-old meet record set by Princeton’s Alicia Aemisegger in 2013 at 4:06.15. (Sun missed the mark by .07 seconds last season, though Aemisegger’s conference record of 4:02.47 from 2009 remains.)
Sun started her week with a win in the 200 IM in 1:55.62 that set the Brown pool record. She also won the 200 butterfly in 1:54.78, .18 seconds off another 2013 meet record.
Princeton built a lead on Day 1 with Sun going 1-2 with Sophie Segerson in the 200 IM, then Sabrina Johnston winning the 50 free in 22.07 in a pool record and NCAA auto time. The Tigers’ Charlotte Martinkus set the meet record in 1-meter diving later in the session by scoring 318.45. That downed the mark set in 2016 by Harvard’s Mikaela Thompson at 314.20. Teammate Charlotte Norman was second on both 1-meter and 3-meter, with Martinkus fourth.
The IM further solidified the Tigers’ advantage in the 400 IM, with Sun first, Chloe Kim second and Segerson third. Johnston finished second in the 100 free and third in the 100 backstroke. Heidi Smithwick was second in the 100 fly and third in the 200 fly. Eliza Brown was second in the 200 breast.
Princeton only won one of five relays, but it added three seconds and a third. The 200 free relay of Johnston, Sophia Sunwoo, Edie Simecek and Veronique Rossouw set the pool record in 1:28.31, .08 off the meet mark, to get a provisional NCAA cut, .05 off the auto cut. Sunwoo was third in the 50 and the 100 free.
Harvard’s Anya Mostek had an outstanding meet as well. She did the backstroke double, winning the 100 back in 51.31. It’s a massive drop from her meet record, which last year clipped .01 off the 2019 championships and conference record of Yale’s Bella Hindley at 52.13. The near eight-tenths drop is an auto trip to NCAAs, as was her winning time of 1:52.70 in the 200 back. (The senior was .14 off the meet and conference record of Felicia Pasadyn from 2020.) Mostek also finished second in the 50 free in 22.18.
Mostek led off both of Harvard’s winning medley relays, each of which set pool and meet records in NCAA provisional cuts. Mostek joined Aliana Marakovic, Sydney Lu and Blythe Wieclawek to go 1:36.13 in the 200 and 3:32.44, taking down meet records set by Princeton in 2023 and Harvard in 2020, respectively.
Lu won the 100 fly in 51.97 to get to NCAAs, was second in the 200 fly and fifth in the 50 free. Marakovic won the 200 breaststroke in 2:11.93. Alexandra Bastone earned a spot at NCAAs by winning the 500 free in 4:40.94.
Brown’s freestyle depth impressed. The Bears won the 400 free and 800 free relays. Crystal Yuen, Isabel Dieffenthaller, Kelly Dolce and Morgan Lukinac went 7:01.37 to edge Princeton by .55 seconds in the 800 free relay. They capped the meet with a time of 3:14.72 in the 400 free relay. Both are provisional cuts.
Lukinac won the 200 free in 1:44.20 and the 100 in 48.29. She was also fourth in the 50 free.
In the 200 free, Yuen was second, Dieffenthaller was fourth and Dolce was seventh. Dolce was fourth in the 100.
Penn’s balance led it to second place. The Quakers’ only swimming win came on the final day via Sydney Bergstrom, who won the 1,650 free in 16:02.63 for an automatic NCAA berth. Teammate Anna Moehn was second. She was also second in the 500 with Bergstrom third, and fifth in the 200 free. The Quakers got second-place results from Kate Levensten (200 back), Amy Qin (100 back) and Kate Handley (100 breast). Katya Eruslanova was third in the 200 IM and fourth in the 400 IM. Kayla Fu placed third in 100 fly.
Penn’s Sadie Howard won 3-meter diving with a score of 331.25, 11 points up on Norman.
Jessey Li won the 100 breast for Yale in 1:00.55. She was third in the 200 breast. Third in the 100 breast was Devyn Sargent, who also finished third in the 200 back.
