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Yale Men in Third After Day One of Ivy League Meet

Seasoned veterans swam their fastest races of the season, underclassmen had breakout performances, and the Yale men's swimming and diving team stayed in the title hunt during the first sessions of the Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday.

The Bulldogs scored 326 points in the first round of competition at Princeton's DeNunzio pool. That puts them in third place, behind Harvard''s 385 points and Princeton's leading total of 488. Penn is in fourth place with 286 points.

The preliminary races on Thursday morning already indicated that Yale's swimmers were better rested and faster than they had been all season. Junior Brian Hogan and freshman Kei Hyogo claimed the top two spots in the 500-yard freestyle. Hogan finished in 4:18.75, almost nine seconds faster than his previous season-best. Hyogo's time of 4:19.09 beat his collegiate best by 6.85.

Yale swimmers turned heads again in the 50-yard freestyle prelims. Sophomore Aaron Greenberg and junior Victor Zhang both qualified for the A final, finishing third and seventh, respectively. Both of their times- 19.81 for Greenberg, 20.07 for Zhang- were career-bests.

The Bulldogs began finals with a solid performance in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Yale's relay team of Greenberg, Zhang, senior captain Andrew Heymann and sophomore Oscar Miao finished fourth with a time of 1:19.53. Greenberg recorded a split of 19.74 from a regular start, and Zhang got a 19.53 split with a relay dive. The winning team from Princeton set a meet record of 1:17.35.

Hogan, Hyogo, and senior Rob Harder swam to a 3-4-5 finish in the 500-yard freestyle, and together scored a remarkable 78 points for Yale. Penn junior Chris Swanson defended his 2014 title in the event, and broke his own meet record with a 4:17.35 swim.

Heymann swam the fastest 200-yard IM race of his Yale career, stopping the clock at 1:47.43 to finish in seventh place. Senior Alwin Firmansyah, the Yale record holder in the event, recorded a season-best time of 1:46.84 in 10th-place finish. Freshman Jonathan Rutter was close behind Firmansyah, finishing 12th with a time of 1:47.70.

Greenberg finished third in the 50-yard freestyle final, just as he did in prelims. His time of 19.84 beat out Princeton junior Sandy Bole by .01. Zhang finished in fifth place, just behind Bole, with a time of 19.89.

Junior James McNelis led the way for Yale in the 1-meter diving, finishing 13th with a score of 268.14. Freshman Wayne Zhang and sophomore Anthony Mercadante finished 16th and 18th, respectively. Harvard senior Mike Mosca won the Ivy League title in the event for the fourth consecutive year.

The Bulldogs ended the first day of Ivies with another fourth-place relay finish. Freshman Shawn Nee, Heymann, Firmansyah and Zhang finished the 400-yard medley relay in 3:13.24. Princeton won this relay as well, and set another meet record with its 3:09.56 finish.

The meet resumes at 11:00 a.m. on Friday with the 400-yard IM prelims. The Bulldogs will also compete in the 100-yard butterfly, the 200-yard freestyle, the 100-yard backstroke and the 3-meter diving.

Most of Yale's swimmers that raced on Thursday achieved NCAA "B" cuts, which makes them eligible to represent the university at the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in March.

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