The Yale men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams continued their winning streaks with victories over Penn State and New Hampshire, respectively. While the women defeated the Wildcats’ handedly at 152–85, the men’s meet came down to the wire, with the Bulldogs pulling out the win by only nine points.

“When meets are close, you learn the most about a team because every scoring position matters,” captain Andrew Heymann said. “This win spoke volumes about the depth of our team.”

The male bulldogs started out strong on day one with a victory in the 400-yard medley relay by the “A” team of Shawn Nee ’18, Heymann, Alwin Firmansyah ’15 and Victor Zhang ’16. Penn State retaliated quickly, sweeping the one-meter dive and taking home wins in the 200-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke. The Elis battled back as Heymann barely out-touched Andrew Schuehler of Penn State in the 100-yard breaststroke and Firmansyah and Alex Schultz ’17 took first and second in the 200-yard butterfly.

Penn State won the rest of the day’s competitions except the 1,000-yard freestyle where Kei Hyogo ’18, Brian Hogan ’16 and Ben Lerude ’17 dominated, sweeping the field and placing in that order. At the end of day one, the Bulldogs were trailing 94–92, their first time being behind during the first day of a meet all season. A motivational speech from Coach Tim Wise and Heymann helped the team prepare for the second day.

“Our coach made it clear that the meet was far from over and there still was a chance to beat them,” said Kevin Stang ’16. “Heymann gathered the team together right before the start of the second session and motivated the team to do more than just try and hang with Penn State, but rather attack them in their weakest events and come out with a win.”

Penn State took control at the beginning of the second day, sweeping the three-meter dive and winning the 200-yard medley relay. Hyogo and Hogan kept up their winning combination, taking first and second in the 500-yard freestyle and giving the Elis some vital points. For the remaining five individual events, the Bulldogs managed to have at least two swimmers place in the top three, and they twice swept all three spots, effectively sealing the win, although by a narrow margin.

Hogan said the coaches told them exactly how many points they needed to pull out the win, giving them the motivation they used to fuel the rest of the meet.

The women’s team stayed at home to face off against New Hampshire and completed another successful blow out. Lilybet MacRae ’17, Kelly Sherman ’16 and Olivia Grinker ’16 swept the one-meter dive, followed by a win in the 400-yard medley relay. In the 1,000-yard freestyle, Eva Fabian ’16 won by two seconds while Sydney Hirschi won the 50-yard freestyle by less than 0.1 seconds.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Michelle Chintanaphol ’17 took second place. She was recently named the ECAC swimmer of the week for her victories in the meets versus Cornell, Penn and Dartmouth.

“I am honored by the recognition and grateful for my coach, Jim Henry, for nominating me,” Chintanaphol said.

The divers continued their streak and swept the three-meter dive as well, with McKenna Tennant ’18 taking second and Sherman taking third. Victories in the 100-yard butterfly, freestyle, and backstroke led to 27 points for the Elis, followed by another win by Fabian in the 500-yard freestyle to round out the first place finishes for the Bulldogs on the day.

Both teams will have a week of rest before heading to the biggest meet of the season, the Harvard-Yale-Princeton matchup in Cambridge. The women begin competition on Jan. 30 and the men begin Jan. 31.