In the last regular season meet of the season, the Yale men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams were victorious over the visiting Brown Bears. Heading into the Ivy League Championships, the men are tied for second with Columbia and Princeton while the women are seated solidly in third.

For the female seniors — Rebecca DeLaFuente ’15, Elizabeth Larsen ’15 and Jacqui Levere ’15 — their final home meet as Bulldogs was also marked by the 40th anniversary celebration of women’s swimming and diving at Yale, which gathered alumni to the stands at Kiphuth Pool for the event.

“[The meet] was great and I think a lot of my energy came from the fans in the stands,” diver Kelly Sherman ’16 said. “We had a great turn out and it was a lot of fun.”

The divers kicked off competition for the day, with Lilybet MacRae ’17 and Sherman taking first and second place, respectively, in both the one-meter and three-meter dives. After a victory in the 200–yard medley relay by the Elis, Brown pulled ahead to take the win in the 400–yard freestyle relay. Eva Fabian ’16 blew away the competition in the 1,000–yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 10:09.61, nearly 13 seconds better than the time of the second-place finisher. Casey Lincoln ’16 and Isla Hutchinson-Maddox ’17 took second and third in the event.

After victories by Fabian in the 500–yard freestyle and Cheryl Xiang ’18 in the 200–yard freestyle, Amy Zhao ’18 and DeLaFuente took second and third in the 50–meter freestyle. In the 100–yard butterfly, Kasey Mann ’16 pulled out the victory by only 0.07 seconds, while Kate Rogers ’18 won the 100–yard backstroke, bringing in more points for the Bulldogs. The Elis managed to sweep Brown again, this time in the 100–yard breaststroke with Paulina Kaminski ’18, Larsen and Emily Gudbranson ’16 taking the top three spots, all of their times within three seconds of each other.

The Bulldogs finished the day with 171 points, compared to Brown’s 72.

“It felt fantastic to take home the win in our last home meet and to send our seniors out in style,” Fabian said.

KenYanagisawa_wswimdiveBrown-45

On the men’s side of events, the seniors were placed front and center in the first event, the 400–yard medley relay. Mike Lazris ’15, Ronald Tsui ’15, Alwin Firmansyah ’15 and captain Andrew Heymann ’15 led the Eli sweep of the event, bringing in 11 points and starting the team in good position for the day. Brian Hogan ’16 took home the win in the 1,000–yard freestyle, shaving over four seconds off of his time from the same meet last year.

In the 200–yard freestyle, Victor Zhang ’16 and Rob Harder ’15 combined for a 1–2 finish, and Aaron Greenberg ’17 and Oscar Miao ’17 did the same in the 50–yard freestyle. Firmansyah led the way for an Eli sweep in the 200–yard IM.

The divers opened up their day with the one–meter dive. James McNelis ’16 placed first and Wayne Zhang ’18, a staff reporter for YTV, took third, less than two points behind Jonathan Schalafer of Brown. The swimmers returned with the 200–yard butterfly, with a tight heat between Kei Hyogo ’18 and Alex Schultz ’17. Hyogo eventually out-touched Schultz by just 0.18 seconds. In the 100–yard freestyle race, Harder and Heymann finished within half a second of each other, taking first and second. Kevin Stang ’16 and Ben Lerude ’17 brought in victories in the 200–yard backstroke and the 500–yard freestyle, respectively. Zhang and McNelis placed second and third in the three-meter dive to wrap up the diving competitions for the day. The Bulldogs continued their relay victories, placing first and second in the 200–yard freestyle relay to finish the team events. The Elis outscored Brown 184.5–58.5 to finish the day.

After the competition, many of the swimmers expressed their gratitude for the seniors — Firmansyah, Harder, Heymann, Lazris, Tsui and Andy Wingerson ’15.

“[The class of] 2015 has done a great job under the leadership of Heymann to focus the team starting in the pre-season and keeping us motivated throughout the season,” Stang said.

The Ivy League Championships begin on Feb. 19 for the women in Cambridge, while they begin a week later for the men in Princeton, N.J.