Another Jump In The Pool

So here are 17 seconds that can't help but make you smile, no? 

Earned their stripes. 🌿🏊‍♀️@PUCSDT | @PUTIGERS pic.twitter.com/08OLHTJzw3

— Ivy League (@IvyLeague) February 23, 2025

You're smiling, right? Of course you are. 

The video shows your 2025 Ivy League women's swimming and diving champion Princeton Tigers. It also shows just how gleeful a team can be after winning something that is not easy to do. 

The Ivy League meet is contested over the course of four days and nights, with preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening. Getting to the finish line in any individual race is hard enough; getting to the final finish line Saturday night with the most points is even tougher. 

It's no wonder that everyone in the video is so happy. Winning is not easy. 

The last person in the video is head coach Abby Brethauer. First of all, getting a Gatorade bath on a pool deck could lead to some danger, but hey, she's clearly not bothered by it. And then she ends up in the pool with everyone else. 

It's the thrill of victory, as people TigerBlog's age might say.

Before he gets into the specifics, TB does want to restate the obvious: Championships are never to be taken for granted. 

And so what that Princeton has now won three straight women's swimming and diving championships and 26 overall, by far the most of any school. Nothing is ever guaranteed to you.

If you think in those terms, it really makes you appreciate the consistency that defined Princeton women's swimming and diving — and Princeton Athletics for that matter. 

Look at 2024-25, for instance. Back in the fall, Princeton had five Ivy League championship teams — field hockey, women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's cross country, women's cross country — and that doesn't include the NWPA title for the men's water polo team and the Ivy tournament title in men's soccer. 

This winter, Princeton had already won the Ivy title in men's fencing before the women's swimming and diving teams did so. That's seven league titles with several more for the winter and then the entire spring still to be contested. 

Getting to 10 Ivy titles is something that six Ivy schools have never even approached. For Princeton, it's something of a goal for every academic year. 

Don't ever take for granted how hard that is to do.

Meanwhile, for the women's swimming and diving title from this weekend, Eleanor Sun was the Co-High Point Swimmer of the Meet and Charlotte Martinkus was the High Point Diver of the Meet for the second time in her career. 

Sun won three individual events (200 butterfly, 200 IM, 400 IM) and was on two winning relays (400 and 800 free). Martinkus won the 1- and 3-meter dives.

In all Princeton won 10 events — five individual, three relay and two diving. In addition to Sun, Princeton also had individual champs in Dakota Tucker (200 breaststroke) and Sabrina Johnston (50 free). 

The final team scores had Princeton with 1,479 points, nearly 200 ahead of second-place Harvard (1,287.5). Harvard won five individual events Friday night alone and had seven for the weekend. How do you win by nearly 200 points if you're outdone in individual championships? 

By having a complete team effort, that's how. While the winners are the ones who get the most recognition, it's depth that piles up the points. 

Here's an example, the 100 backstroke Friday night. Harvard's Anya Mostek won the event. Princeton, though, had Johnston, Isabella Korbly and Alexa Pappas come in 3-4-5. For the 100 back, Princeton picked up 106.5 points to Harvard's 67. And that's how you win.

It's also much more cerebral for the coaches than you might think. There are any number of possible permutations of entries. The challenge is to put it all together to maximize the points. 

And then you have to go out and do it. That's what the Princeton women did.

It's three straight now and 26 overall. 

Do not take those numbers for granted.