Stroke Depth Helps Princeton Retain Cannon Trophy vs. Rutgers
Depth in the stroke events helped Princeton top Rutgers, 212.5-87.5 and retain the Cannon Trophy in the battle of New Jersey programs held on Saturday.
It’s the fifth straight year that No. 22 Princeton has won the Cannon Trophy, all since Rutgers, ranked 25th nationally, took the inaugural crown in 2019.
Princeton started the meet by taking the top two spots in the 200 medley relay, the quartet of Delaney Herr, Eliza Brown, Sabrina Johntson and Sophia Sunwoo going 1:38.71 to claim the victory.
Herr won the 100 backstroke in 53.48 seconds, with teammate Natalie Farquhar finishing in second place. Brown claimed the 100 breaststroke victory in 1:01.95 ahead of mate Sophie Segerson. After the diving break, Grace Black (2:00.05) edged Segerson by .03 seconds to lead a 1-2-3 sweep of the 200 back, then Eleanor Sun’s time of 2:13.46 paced a sweep of the 200 breast.
Sun also won the 200 free. Segerson was second in the 200 individual medley to Dakota Tucker, who had been second in the 200 breast. Tucker opened up the meet by winning the 1,000 free. Chloe Kim swept the 200 fly and 500 free. Johnston claimed victory in the 100 free, and Savannah Skow was the winner in the 100 fly. Johnston, Herr, Sun and Heidi Smithwick combined to go 1:31.04 to get to the wall first in the 200 free relay, edging Rutgers’ A relay squad by a margin of .43 seconds.
Charlotte Martinkus bested a crowded diving field that featured five finishers clustered within 20 points of each other by scoring 304.28 to win 1-meter diving for the Tigers.
Rutgers’ only swimming win came in the 50 free via Emilianna Gonzalez, who went 22.90 to best Sunwoo by .25 seconds. Gonzalez also led off the second-place 200 free relay that stayed so close. Rutgers got a boost on 3-meter diving with a 1-2-3 results, led by Bailee Sturgill scoring 337.73 points to win.
