In Yale swimming and diving’s first home meet of the season Saturday, both the men and women dominated their opponents, sweeping the top three spots in nine individual events.
The women’s team defeated Vermont 209–74 to maintain its perfect record in three dual meets this season while the men’s squad beat the University of Massachusetts by a similar score, winning 193–107.
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In addition to nearly tripling Vermont’s overall team score, the women’s team also claimed every event but one, the 100-freestyle, in which Yale took second and third places. Two freshmen, Alex Forrester ’13 and Joan Weaver ’13, took the first two spots in the 100-yard freestyle. Yale repeated this, taking first and second in the 100-yard backstroke with strong performances from Molly Albrecht ’13 and Emily Dominski ’12, who finished 1–2, respectively. Despite Susan Kim’s ’10 absence, Yale still was able to control the breaststroke events: Athena Liao ’12 came away with victory in both the 100- and 200–yard events.
The Bulldogs swept the top three spots in four individual swimming events — the 200-yard butterfly, the 100-yard freestyle, the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard individual medley — to solidify their lead in the meet. The Elis also took the top two spots in the 50-yard freestyle when Cynthia Tsay ’13 edged out captain Andrea Clifford ’10 by .61 seconds for the win. Other victories came from Albrecht in the 200-yard backstroke, Weaver in the 500-yard freestyle, and the team of Albrecht, Weaver, Tsay and Forrester in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
Yale also took the top four spots in both diving events. The order was Rachel Rosenberg ’12, Paige Meneses ’13, Marisa Poverman ’10 and Lisa Andrekovich ’12 in the one-meter, and Andrekovich, Rosenberg, Meneses, and Poverman in the 3-meter.
“The four of us are all very different divers,” Meneses said. “But together we push each other and I feel as if we are an extremely effective combination.”
The men’s squad won the first event of the day, the 200-yard medley relay, giving it momentum that it retained throughout the meet. Matt Lee ’11 and Jerrold Lee ’11 finished first and third in the 1000-yard freestyle, respectively, while Lugar Choi ’11 and Mert Altinok ’13 had the same results in the 200-yard freestyle, respectively. The men’s squad took the top three spots in three events, the 200-yard butterfly, the 200-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard medley relay. The Elis also had first place finishes in the 100-yard backstroke by Mike Dominski ’13, the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly by Goksu Bicer ’12, the 200-yard backstroke by captain Tom Robinson ’10, and the 100-yard freestyle by Matt Lee.
The top diving scores came from Colton Staab ’12 and Drew Teer ’10, as Staab took third in the one-meter and Teer placed second in the 3-meter.
“Having our meet at home definitely helped the team swim fast,” Sean Haufler ’13 said. “The support of local fans and the Yale marching band created a motivating atmosphere for our swimmers.”
These were the last meets of the year for both teams. Their next meet will be against Cornell on Jan. 10.
“Ending the year with such a win leaves us in a pretty good position,” Matt Lee said. “But now we have over a month until the next meet, so we have to keep up our training over the break and remain focused.”