Yale Athletics

At the annual HYP swim meet, the Bulldogs (7–1, 6–1 Ivy) defeated Harvard (7–2, 5–2 Ivy) with a final score of 184–163 but lost their undefeated streak with a 154.50–197.50 loss to Princeton (10–1, 7–0 Ivy).

Over the weekend, the Bulldogs hosted both teams for the highly anticipated HYP tri-meet among the top three-ranked teams in the Ivy League. 

The Elis started off strong on Friday, breaking three pool records: Noah Millard ’26 in the 1,000-yard freestyle, Charlie Egeland ’27 in the 100-yard breaststroke and Nick Finch ’28 in the 50-yard freestyle, each claiming first in their respective events.

The record-breaking streak for these three Bulldogs continued on Saturday with Millard in the 500-yard freestyle, Egeland in the 200-yard breaststroke and Finch in the 100-yard butterfly.

Reflecting on his own broken records as well as the team’s successes, Millard was proud of the team’s ability to come together to take on their two biggest rivals. 

“Overall the meet was incredibly exciting from a number of different perspectives. Of course on a personal level being able to break some long standing pool records was a nice reward, but on a wider team level, we got to put our training to the test against what has traditionally been the Ivy League’s top two teams over the last decade,” Millard wrote to the News. 

The Bulldogs showed some strong performances in the meet’s relays. In the 400-yard medley relay, Manoli Mountantonakis ’28, Egeland, Finch and Jake Wang ’28 finished second in 3:08.78. The quartet of Ben Meulemans ’25, Wang, Nareg Minassian ’26 and Mak Nurkic Kacapor ’27 came in third with a time of 1:18.43 in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Alexander Hazlett ’26, Lucius Brown ’26, Hammer Massey ’27 and Alex Deng ’25 took fifth in 1:21.26. 

In the 200-yard medley relay, the team of Brown, Egeland, Finch and Deniel Nankov ’27 finished second in 1:25.52, a mere one-hundredth of a second after the winning Princeton team. Mountantonakis, Hazlett, Elliot Lee ’28 and Meulemans came in fourth in 1:27.32. Nankov, Meulemans, Minassian and Millard finished second in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 2:53.56. 

Minassian was proud of the team’s efforts, notably defeating Harvard for the first time in 33 years. 

“HYP was a huge success for us. We haven’t beaten Harvard since 1992 and to do that yesterday was special,” Minassian wrote to the News on Sunday. 

The Bulldogs also dominated in the 1,000-yard freestyle, 500-yard freestyle and the 100-yard breaststroke, claiming the top two spots in each event. Millard finished first in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 8:54.17, followed closely by Arshak Hambardzumyan ’28  in second with a time of 8:56.88. Millard also took first in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:15.43 and Hambardzumyan second in 4:20.48. Egeland touched the wall first in the 100-yard breaststroke in 52.49, and Wang finished in 53.14.

In the 50-yard freestyle, Finch narrowly defeated Harvard’s Sonny Wang to take first place in 19.36. Meulemans and Nankov took fourth and fifth, respectively. Millard trailed Princeton’s Mitchell Schott in the 200-yard freestyle, finishing second in 1:34.95. 

Other notable performances included Egeland’s first-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke in 1:55.31 and Finch’s 100-yard butterfly time of 45.95, both of which broke pool records.

In the 200-yard individual medley, the Elis finished second, third and fourth. Wang in 1:45.99, Lee in 1:46.87 and Egeland in fourth in 1:47.32.

On the diving side, Jackson Lipscomb ’28 finished second in the three-meter dive with a score of 367.15. Nicholas Chau ’26, Ray Wipfli ’25 and Brady Stanton ’28, finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively, with scores of 331.20, 312.20 and 290.10. 

As the Bulldogs finished their regular season, they now have their eyes on the Ivy League Championship and hope to defeat Princeton in a rematch.

“Everyone put their all into this meet, but now it’s time to focus on the end goal: Ivies. Being able to see all the hard work we have put in this season come to fruition is a huge confidence boost that will carry us through to Ivies,” Minassian wrote to the News. “Princeton is the team to beat, and I think it’s going to be a dog fight until the end. I’m excited.”

Millard echoed Minassian and looks forward to preparing for the Ivy League Championship.

“Being able to compete hard and race in front of the packed stands was really special, we had a ton of parents and friends come by to watch and having such a good outcome while sending off our seniors at their final home meet was a nice touch,” Millard wrote to the News. “We are super excited to get into the final stages of preparation for Ivy Champs and hopefully qualify some more people for NCAA Championships in March.” 

The Elis will travel to Providence, R.I. to compete in the Ivy League Championship on Wednesday, Feb. 19 through Saturday, Feb. 22.