Harvard Men’s Swim and Dive Places Third at Ivy League Championships

After Princeton snapped Harvard’s seven-year winning streak at last year’s Ivy League Championship, the Tigers found themselves reigning over the Ivy League podium again this year — this time on their own home turf in New Jersey.

The Crimson men’s swim and dive team, meanwhile, finished third overall in this year’s championship, falling to Princeton and Yale.

Despite the disappointing overall result, Harvard had many successes to celebrate. The team secured ten podium finishes, including three event wins. After notching strong swims at the meet, freshman William Mulgrew and sophomore Adriano Arioti secured automatic bids to the NCAA Championships.

Mulgrew shattered Ivy League and Harvard program records in both the 1650-yard and 1000-yard freestyle, snagging a national top-three time. The rookie also broke the Crimson’s record in the 500-yard freestyle, while Arioti secured the second-fastest program time in the 200-yard backstroke.

“He definitely works really hard in practice every day. That sounds like a cliché, but training as a distance swimmer is always very difficult, so he does a good job being very consistent in his workouts and executing what he’s asked to,” Head Coach Kevin Tyrrell said, talking about Mulgrew.

However, the Crimson treaded slowly during the first day of the meet, falling off the podium by one tenth of a second in the 200-yard medley relay. Harvard finished sixth in the 800-yard freestyle relay — less than three tenths of a second behind third-place Cornell.

Entering Thursday in fifth place, the Crimson needed a fiery start to begin its second day.

Mulgrew answered the call, securing Harvard’s first podium finish of the meet in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:21.03.

Breaking a Harvard record, Mulgrew finished second in the prelims behind Yale’s senior Noah Millard, who finished in ninth place at the NCAA Championships last year in the event. In the final, Mulgrew claimed silver and chopped four seconds off his season best.

Arioti finished fourth in the 200-yard individual medley, while junior Sonny Wang finished third in his signature 50-yard freestyle.

Harvard struggled in the one-meter diving, with freshman Rem Turatbekov leading the Crimson in eleventh. Four of the five Princeton divers finished ahead of Turatbekov, and four other Ivy League teams had at least one diver higher than eleventh.

“She was working with athletes that she didn’t recruit, and I think they all made very big strides in terms of technique,” Tyrrell said of the team’s new dive coach, Tracey Bird.

“For the dive program over the next four years, once she gets a full handle on everything, this is going to improve dramatically, and that’ll be fun to watch,” he added.

A third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay brought the Crimson to third overall at Thursday’s close.

Junior David Schmitt, Wang, and freshman Maro Miknic finished fourth through sixth in the 100-yard butterfly prelims. Miknic and Wang swapped places in the final race, but Schmitt excelled and claimed silver.

Captain David Greeley secured third in the final of the 200-yard freestyle behind Princeton duo senior Mitchell Schott and sophomore Patrick Dinu, last year’s first and third place finishers, respectively.

Arioti won bronze in the 100-yard backstroke finals.

Mulgrew then secured his second podium finish of the meet, winning gold in the 1000-yard freestyle with an 8:38.01 time. Chopping off 10 seconds from his season best and finishing seven seconds ahead of Millard, Mulgrew secured an Ivy League and Harvard record with the third-best time nationally.

“He loves to race, and the bigger the stage, the more he sort of swims faster,” Tyrrell said. “I think he really enjoyed swimming at the Ivy Championships because he wanted to win for the team, and then he wanted to get to the NCAA, because it’s the next level up.”

Fellow freshman Pablo Martinez finished in third in the same event, and the Crimson ended the day with second-place in the 400-yard medley relay.

Sitting in third place overall heading into the fourth and final day, Arioti opened Harvard’s final push by winning the 200-yard backstroke, securing a spot at the NCAA Championships.

“He made a lot of really good decisions in terms of being focused and working hard in the classroom and in the pool this year,” Tyrrell said, commenting on Arioti’s success.

Breaking another Ivy League and Harvard record, Mulgrew then dominated the 1650-yard freestyle with a nearly 20-second advantage over Millard, who snagged second place.

Greeley and Wang rounded out the top eight in the 100-yard freestyle, while sophomore Joshua Chen finished in fourth in the 200-yard backstroke.

“After [Greeley’s] last race, he came out in tears because his swimming career is now over, and it meant so much to him,” Tyrrell said. “Just reflecting back on the fact that this means a lot to the seniors, and we’re proud of all of them.”

A name to keep in mind ahead of the NCAA Championship qualifier announcement, Schmitt slipped to second in the 200-yard butterfly after a first-place time in the prelims. The junior finished behind Princeton’s senior Mitchell Schott, who secured back-to-back gold medals in the event.

Rounding out the meet, Turatbekov scored seventh in the three-meter dive, and a third-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay cemented Harvard’s third-place overall score.

Harvard’s swimmers will now turn their focus to the NCAA Championships in four weeks in Atlanta, G.A. Mulgrew and Arioti have already punched their tickets, and the rest of the qualifiers will be announced next weekend by the NCAA.

“The workouts can be written specifically to them, as opposed to, you know, groups of seven or eight people who might do the same events,” Tyrrell said about training for NCAAs.

“During school vacation week, there aren’t a lot of guys around from a social standpoint, so it’s far more difficult because practices get a little bit more boring for them,” he added.

The rest of the team will focus on preparing for next season, aiming for a top-two finish at the 2027 Ivy Championships. Tyrrell said he looks forward to the nine incoming freshmen who will bolster the team’s ranks next season.

“The senior class this year was pretty small, so there’ll be a greater pool of people to choose from. We had some guys that you know got injured over their careers,” Tyrrell said. “It’ll be fun to have four full healthy years of guys.”

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @uybpham or on Signal at ubp.88.