Columbia v. Yale
- Saturday, November 16, 2019
- New York, N.Y.
- Results
Courtesy: Columbia Athletics
NEW YORK — Winning 11-of-16 events, the Columbia men’s swimming and diving team registered a 172-128 victory over the visiting Yale Bulldogs to remain undefeated at 3-0 on the young season.
The triumph comes one week after downing Penn, 171-129, in the team’s Ivy League opener.
“It’s always nice to win a dual meet, but that’s all it is,” said 36th-year head coach Jim Bolster after the win. “It doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to beat Yale at the end of the year, but that’s our goal. This gives us some insights as to where their talents lie, what we’re going to have to do. Penn and Yale in their cheers … they say, ‘See you at Ivies,’ with the intention that you got us today, but wait until Ivies.
“It’s always nice to win, especially at home, but don’t place a lot of importance on that other than the way our kids responded to the opportunity to swim fast against a good opponent, and they stepped up. We happened to do both today, they swam well and they won, so that’s great. And 3-0 sounds really nice.”
The first four events of the day were split, with Yale claiming the top spot in both the 3-meter dive and the 1,000-yard freestyle and the Lions winning the 200 medley relay (1:29.53) as well as senior Nian-Guo Liu winning the 200 freestyle for the third time in as many meets, going 1:37.46.
Liu’s victory would kickstart a win streak for the Lions, going on to win the next four events as senior Cole Stevens picked up a win in the 100 backstroke (49.73), Andy Lee took the 100 breaststroke (57.19), Ray Yang claimed the 200 butterfly (1:48.51) and junior Albert Gwo one again came up victorious in the 50 free with a near-pool-record time of 19.98. It was the first time Gwo had registered a time under 20 seconds in a dual meet.
Yale came back to win the 3-meter springboard, with Columbia first-year Ben Blizard taking second with a score of 291.68. Blizard was also Columbia’s top finisher on the 3-meter springboard, posting a score of 307.43.
“We had some miscues in the first event,” commented diving coach Scott Donie. “The divers showed great character and really bounced back in the second event and I’m very proud of all of them. A great team effort!”
Following the 1-meter, Gwo won his second event of the day as he clocked a 44.40 in the 100 free before junior Baptiste Leger finished first in the 200 back with a time of 1:48.04, leading a 1-2-3 finish for Columbia ahead of Joe Skimmons (1:50.20) and Joey Licht (1:50.46).
In the 200 breast, first-year Michael Chang came into the wall first with a top time of 2:03.91. The next event saw Liu post a time of 4:31.58 to win the 500 free.
After Yale earned a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 butterfly, Lions sophomore Hayden Liu finished the individual racing with a win in the 200 IM at 1:50.30 ahead of teammate William Tan who took second in 1:54.48.
Although Columbia had sealed the team victory, the Bulldogs finished the day by setting a new Uris Natatorium record in the 400 free relay, going 2:58.66.
Hosting their final dual meet of the 2019 calendar year, the Lions will face off against defending conference champs Harvard next Saturday, Nov. 22 at Uris Natatorium. The meet is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
NEW YORK — Despite six event victories and some extremely close races, the Columbia women’s swimming and diving team fell to Yale, 172-127, on Friday night at the Percy Uris Natatorium.
The Lions move to 1-1 overall on the season, while Yale improves to 3-0, 2-0 Ivy.
“This Columbia team came out to race and compete tonight,” said head coach Diana Caskey after the meet. “There were a lot of great swims and tight races. I was proud of the effort, attitude and result.”
“The women really stepped up against some very strong competition,” added diving coach Scott Donie. “Two more NCAA qualifying scores, one for Briget [Rosendahl] and one for Livy [Poulin]. A lot of great dives are happening and I’m really excited about this team.”
Although Yale’s Nikki Watters claimed top honors in the opening 3-meter springboard at 269.41, Columbia’s divers posted a 2-3-4 finish to keep it close as Livy Poulin (267.53), Michelle Lee (258.09) and Briget Rosendahl (258.09) would round out the top four. Poulin would go on to also place second on 1-meter with a score of 271.05, leading another 2-3-4 finish.
In the first swimming event, the Lions’ quartet of Julia Samson, Helen Wojdylo, Emily Wang and Jessica He would combine for a winning time of 1:43.39 in the 200-yard medley relay.
The Bulldogs would go on to win the next three events before Wojdylo clocked a winning time of 56.58 in the 100 breaststroke. The senior captain went on to also win the 200 breast, touching the wall in 2:14.49.
Following Wojdylo’s win in the 200 breast, the Lions would go on to win the next three individual events as well as first-year Olivia Jubin placed first in the 500 freestyle (4:55.42), Wang won the 100 butterfly (56.73) and first-year Karen Liu took the 200 IM (2:02.87).
The Lions are back in action next Friday, Nov. 22, hosting the Harvard Crimson at Percy Uris Natatorium at noon.
Courtesy: Yale Athletics
NEW YORK – Despite falling short 172–128, the Yale men’s swimming and diving team had some strong performances at Columbia.. The duo of divers junior Christian DeVol and first year JP Ditto continued to dominate and the Elis found success in relay competitions.
DeVol and Ditto have been swapping places on the podium throughout this early season and today was no different. In the 3-meter diving event, DeVol took first with a 355.12 score while Ditto finished second with a 309.00 mark. DeVol then won his second event of the afternoon in the 1-meter dive with a score of 330.23.
Sophomore Liam Bogart has been prolific this season and he continued to be impressive today. He finished first in the 1000-yard freestyle with a scorching 9:35.20 time before achieving second in the 500-yard freestyle event with a 4:34.53 time.
The Bulldogs were strong in their relays today, which is an encouraging sign for the rest of the season. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the team of senior Henry Gaissert, junior Philippe Marcoux, first year Greg Kailin, and first year Joseph Page were victorious with a total time of 2:58.66, which was a Uris Pool record.
Yale next travels to Columbus, Ohio, to compete in the Ohio State Invitational next weekend.
NEW YORK – The Yale women’s swimming and diving team moved to 3-0 on Friday, taking down Columbia by a score of 172-127. The Bulldogs got off to a hot start before the Lions closed the gap by taking first in the final four individual events.
Yale almost pulled off a full sweep of the freestyle events. First year Ophelia Pilkinton won the 50-yard freestyle (23.55), while sophomore Izzi Henig took first in the 100-yard freestyle (51.52). Fellow sophomores Raime Jones and Ashley Loomis won the 200-yard freestyle (1:49.69) and 1000-yard freestyle (10:12.35), respectively.
For the second consecutive meet, juniors Caitlin Tycz and Cate Sawkins took first in their respective events. Tycz won the 200-yard butterfly (2:00.89), while Sawkins paced all swimmers in the 200-yard backstroke (2:00.86). First-year Jaime Yeh placed first in the other individual backstroke event, the 100-yard backstroke. She finished the event in 56.58 seconds.
Diver Nikki Watters had an incredibly successful meet, receiving the winning scores in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dive.
Yale will not have another regular season meet as a team until Dec. 5, when the Bulldogs takes on Southern Connecticut. However, many of the Bulldogs will travel to Ohio State next weekend for the Ohio State Invitational.