After setting many new personal records at the previous weekend’s H-Y-P swim meet, the Yale men’s swimming team lost a tough match against UConn on Saturday. The defeat was especially tough because none of the swimmers on Yale’s squad had ever lost to the Huskies.
The meet, which took place at UConn, placed the struggling Bulldogs (1–6, 1–3 Ivy) against the red-hot Huskies (7–1). After UConn won the closely contested match 168–132, many of the Yale swimmers expressed frustration over the loss.
“It was very disappointing. It’s the first time UConn has beat us ever,” said Goksu Biçer ’12.
On Saturday, Biçer ’12 set a pool record in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 49.37. The record had previously been held by another Yalie, Chris Pool ’09, with a time of 49.47. But Biçer was more concerned with his team’s results, rather than his pool record.
“I think after [the] H-Y-P [meet] we lost focus a bit. We really need to get back into it, we gotta get back into the game,” he said.
Captain Kyle Veatch ’11 echoed his teammate’s sentiment of a lack of concentration.
“I think a lot of guys had a lot of trouble getting back up to race fast,” he said. “It was tough mentally. We had such a big match the week before, and it was hard for a lot of guys to reciprocate that.”
Despite the disappointing result, several swimmers made a strong showing.
Chris Luu ’12 performed well with a win in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:08.75) and a second-place showing in the 100-yard breaststroke (59.35).
Mikey Bogese ’14 also impressed, taking second in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:28.28) and third in the 200-yard IM (1:55.72).
“It was a really close meet, we lost a lot of close races and unfortunately we couldn’t pull out the win. It was a pretty disappointing loss,” Mike Dominski ’13 said.
Next up for the Bulldogs is their final home meet against Ivy League rival Brown (2–3, 1–3 Ivy).
“They’ve had an interesting season,” Jared Lovett ’12 said. “They’ve lost against Dartmouth [5–4, 1–4 Ivy], but just recently beat Cornell [6–3, 4–3]. It’s going to be a close meet. Either way we’ll definitely need our A-game.”
The upcoming meet against Brown will take place in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium at 1:00 p.m. this Saturday.