Coming off a loss against Cornell last week, the men’s swimming team tallied its first Ivy League victory on Saturday by beating the visiting Dartmouth Big Green 193-107. But it was a bittersweet experience, as the Bulldogs narrowly lost to Penn 147-153 to split the three-team meet.
“Overall, we competed well, but we came up a little bit short in the end,” head coach Tim Wise said.
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While the Bulldogs had no trouble against the Big Green, the Elis went toe-to-toe with the Quakers throughout the meet. There was no clear victor through the first 15 events of the competition, and both teams had a chance to take the meet with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the final event of the day.
The team of West Cuthbert ’14, Alex Gornitzky ’11, Calvin Jones ’14 and Michael Dominski ’13 finished second with a time of 3:08.75, less than a second behind Penn’s A team, whose win propelled the Quakers ahead of the Bulldogs to take the meet.
“The team swam very well,” captain Kyle Veatch ’11 said. “We matched up really well against Penn and it was obviously a very close match, and it came down to the last leg of the last relay.”
Dominski was the anchor for the final relay and said that the loss will only motivate him.
“It was a pretty painful race to lose,” Dominski said. “You just have to take things in stride and work harder.”
The 200-yard medley relay team of Veatch, Jason Choi ’11, Chris Luu ’12, and Pat Killian ’14 also finished second earlier in the meet. The Bulldogs’ ‘B’ relay took fourth place in the same event.
Matt Lee ’11 followed up with a win in the 1000-yard freestyle 9:24.18; it was his fourth consecutive win in that event this season. Lee also took third place in the 500-yard freestyle with 4:36.89 and fourth in the 200-yard freestyle with 1:44.74.
“The team had great energy,” Lee said. “We did great in supporting each other. A lot of the freshmen stepped up.”
Killian, who has already made an impressive showing this season, took the 200-yard freestyle in 1:42.53 before finishing the day with third-place finishes in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.
Mike Bogese ’14 took second in the 200-yard individual medley, and Danny McDermott ’14 posted third-place finishes in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke. Freshman diver Tyler Pramer ’14 took second place behind Penn’s Jeff Cragg in both the 1-meter and 3-meter competitions.
Veatch won the 50-yard freestyle in 21.32 and 100-yard butterfly in 49.91, edging teammate Dominski, who finished second in the race. Luu took second place in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke.
The team’s next home meet will be a three-team competition on Jan. 29 against conference rivals and perennial powerhouses Harvard and Princeton.
“We just need to get ready to go as fast as we can, as focused as we can, and give our best shot,” Wise said.
Lee echoed Wise’s remarks and said that the team needs to control the things it can and not be intimidated by its opponents.
The team will travel to Annapolis, MD to take on the Naval Academy this weekend.