“We make the best of whatever schedule we have,” he said. “Come meet time it will not be hard for guys on the team to step up and perform on a compepetitive level.”

Co-captain Kevin Budis added that the win was indicative of how the team has adapted to the losses of Shevchik, Cole and Lawler—by relying on a range of able swimmers rather than a select few big names.

“What we have this year is a much younger group of guys that are looking for their place on the team. There’s a lot of different people swimming with a lot to offer,” he said.

The next weekend saw the Crimson travel to Chapel Hill to face No. 21 North Carolina. Building on momentum from the week before and behind several strong performances by Grant, the Crimson upset the Tar Hills, 157-143.

Grant placed first in the 100- and 200-yard breastroke, while tossing in a leg’s work on the 200-yard medley relay. He was runner-up in the 200-yard individual medley.

The much-anticipated H-Y-P tri-meet on Jan. 30 might well have been called the H-P, because the Elis were a non-factor throughout and were soundly defeated 245-106 by the Crimson and 272-79 by the Tigers.

But the Crimson found more of a fight in the Tiger than it did in the Bulldog.

The competition came down to the wire and the Crimson suffered their first loss of the year, 192-161.

Budris said the Crimson simply ran out of time.

“This was a situation where a team was finishing 1-2 or 1-2-3 and the other team would come right back and do that in the next event,” he said. “We were trading events. If there were more events, there’s no doubt in my mind that the same thing would have happened for another hour.”

The team looked forward to exacting revenge at the EISL Championships at the same Princeton, N.J. venue just over a month later, but not before defeating Cornell, Dartmouth and Pennsylvania. The Crimson beat Penn by its most decisive margin of the year, 237-62.

The team entered March’s EISL championships with a 7-1 record in league competition as well as last year’s championship trophy, but a title defense was not in the cards.

Despite placing first in nine races—three more than Princeton’s six—it was the Tigers who won the mathematical battle, 1423-1338.5.

The EISL Championship awards points for top-24, not only top eight finishes, giving Princeton the edge.

The Crimson made a last-minute push for the title, erasing 45.5 points from the Tiger lead over the course of four races to pull within 33.5 points.