The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams went into this weekend’s meet against Columbia looking for vengeance after finishing one place behind the Lions at the Ivy League championships last spring, but the Elis came up short once again.
On Friday, the men’s team lost to the Lions 153–147, while the women fell 185–115 in New York.
The men’s team fought a heated battle with the Lions as they traded the lead throughout the entire meet. The Bulldogs suffered a loss in the final event, the 400-meter freestyle relay, which gave Columbia the necessary points to pull out the overall victory.
Though the Bulldogs fell, there were several memorable victories. Brian Hogan ’16 achieved victories in the 500- and 1000-meter freestyle events. Rob Harder ’14 won the 200-meter freestyle and 200-meter backstroke, earning points that the Bulldogs needed to stay close with the Lions. Andrew Heymann ’15 came in first in the 200-meter individual medley, the 100-meter breaststroke and the 200-meter breaststroke, the highest number of individual victories at the meet.
“Going into a dual meet, every member of the team has a job to do, and I just focused on doing mine,” Heymann said.
On the diving side, Tyler Pramer ’14 won the three-meter dive and James McNelis ’16 placed third in both the three-meter dive and the one-meter dive. Pramer won the event with a final score of 318.23, more than 15 points ahead of second-place finisher Micah Rembrandt from Columbia. McNelis posted a final score of 282.46.
The three-meter dive was the first diving event of the meet, and Pramer said that it was important to start the meet off well to give the Elis momentum.
“I knew that it was important for the team to start the meet on a good note and I was excited that we were able to do so with the first place finish in the three-meter,” said Pramer.
In the last event of the day, the 400-meter freestyle relay team of Harder, Alwin Fimansyah ’15, Victor Zhang ’16 and Aaron Greenberg ’17 came in just .22 seconds behind the Lions, a win that would have given the Bulldogs the overall victory in the meet.
Although the Bulldogs lost, Pramer said that the team gained experience in the meet that will help it throughout the season. Anthony Mercadante ’17 added that the team is tight-knit and that his teammates would band together to support each other and move on after the loss.
“Close losses bring teams together,” Heymann said. “We are focused on fixing small mistakes and excited for another opportunity to race this weekend at the Bucknell Invitational.”
The women had a disappointing meet as well, falling to the Lions despite several victories. Lilybet MacRae ’17 started the day with a win in the three-meter dive, scoring 319.73 points.
The first swimming victory came from Eva Fabian ’16 in the 1000-meter freestyle and she later won the 500-meter freestyle. Isla Hutchinson-Maddox ’17 won the 200-meter butterfly and Kina Zhou ’17 won the 100-meter freestyle.
Yale pulled out a victory in the 400-meter freestyle relay with the all-freshman team of Zhou, Michelle Chintanaphol ’17, Olivia Jameson ’17 and Ana Wujciak ’17.
This weekend, the women will face off against the University of Bridgeport Knights and the men will compete at the Bucknell Invitational in Pennsylvania.