After a bitter loss against Columbia on Nov. 16, the Bulldogs came back with a vengeance as both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were victorious in their meets just before Thanksgiving break.

At a meet hosted by Bridgeport University, the women beat their hosts 100–79 and the Sacred Heart University Pioneers 107–76. The men pulled out an overall victory at the Bucknell Invitational for the second year in a row, defeating seven other schools for the title.

The women started out strong with victories in the 800-meter freestyle and 200-meter freestyle events. Eva Fabian ’16 defeated the second-place Bridgeport swimmer by nearly 20 seconds, a blowout for the Yale sophomore.

“We have a great coaching staff, and a fantastic training group. We push each other every day through every practice, and our work ethic as a team will lead to success,” Fabian said.

That hard work showed as Yale added victories in the 50-meter freestyle, the 200-meter individual medley, 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly.

The 200-meter “A” relay team of Elizabeth Fosburgh ’17, Olivia Jameson ’17, Ali Stephens-Pickeral ’16 and Kina Zhou ’17 showed its strength yet again, coming in first with a time of 2:01.29.

“It’s not just our relay team that has great chemistry, but the team in general. Everyone is very supportive of one another, and going through tough practices together makes us stronger as a team,” Jameson said.

All eyes were on the men’s team at the Bucknell Invitational, as the defending champions at the meet.

After the loss against Columbia, the Bulldogs trained even harder to prepare for their next competition.

“We are focused on fixing small mistakes and excited for another opportunity to race at the Bucknell Invitational,” Andrew Heymann ’15 said before the event.

The men did not disappoint as they took first place at the Invitational in Lewisburg, PA, defeating second place Bucknell by over 100 points. While there were not many first place finishes, the Elis produced a stellar performance across the board.

Kevin Stang ’16 finished first in the 200-yard backstroke with teammate Mike Lazris ’15 finishing in second.

Other notable performances came later in the meet, as Tyler Pramer ’14 took third in the 1-meter dive, Ben Lerude ’17 took third in the 1,650-yard freestyle, Heymann finished third in the 200-yard breaststroke and Alwin Firmansyah ’15 finished second in the 200-yard butterfly.

The final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, resulted in a Bulldog victory as Aaron Greenberg ’17, Rob Hard ’15, Firmansyah and Heymann stole first place.

The final score for the first-place Elis was 1,591.5, with second place Bucknell finishing with 1,431.5.

The women’s team will be in action at the Princeton Invitational this weekend, while the men travel to Boston University to compete against the Terriers on Dec. 7.