Ava Seymour, Contributing Photographer

The men’s swimming and diving team (1–0, 1–0 Ivy) started its season off strong with a crushing defeat over Brown (0–1, 0–1 Ivy) on Friday, with a final score of 207–93.

The Elis welcomed the Bears to Payne Whitney Gymnasium’s Kiphuth Exhibition Pool. As the first regular season meet for both teams, Yale and Brown sought to start their seasons on the right note and secure a win in the Ivy League conference.

The Bulldogs dominated throughout the meet, winning 14 of the 16 events for a total of 207 points.

After taking a year off from Yale for training and reclassing, Noah Millard ’26 was instrumental in the team’s success. He placed first in the 200 freestyle and helped his team defeat Brown in the 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. Millard’s greatest accomplishment of the day, though, was setting a new pool record in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:44.88, which the team’s coach, Jim Henry, believes to be one of the major highlights of the day. 

“The Brown meet was an outstanding team performance top to bottom. …We showed grit & hustle from the beginning to the end of the meet,” Henry wrote to the News. “It is a great starting point for the team. A good foundation to build from as we head into next week.”

First-year swimmers put up impressive performances. Arshak Hambardzumyan ’28 placed first in the 1000 freestyle and 500 freestyle, clocking in at 9:19.34 and 4:30.79. Nick Finch ’28 carried the Bulldogs to victory in the 50 freestyle with a quick time of 19.14 and the 100 butterfly in 47.96. Jake Wang ’28 crushed the Bears in the 100 backstroke in 48.76. Elliot Lee ’28 secured the win in the 200 butterfly in 1:50.58. Manoli Mountantonakis ’28 placed third in the 100 and 200 backstroke contests.

Charlie Egeland ’27 and Deniel Nankov ’27 put the Elis on the scoreboard. Egeland placed first in 100 breaststroke in 54.08 and 200 breaststroke in 1:57.69, and Nankov won the 100 freestyle in 44.63.

The team kept up the momentum in the relays. Millard, team captain Alex Deng ’25, Finch and Nankov secured the victory in the 200 medley relay in 1:28.04. Wang, Egeland, Alex Hazlett ’26 and Ben Meulemans ’25 followed closely, finishing second in 1:28.87. The Bulldogs continued to rack up points, with Millard, Finch, Meulemans and Nankov winning the 400 freestyle relay in 2:57.60.

The Elis left fans cheering when they swept first, second and third places in the 200-yard butterfly; Lee came in first, clocking in at 1:50.58, followed by Konstantinos Zachariadis ’27 in 1:51.17 and Hazlett in 1:52.08; they also took the top three places in the 500 freestyle with Hambardzumyan finishing in 4:30.79, Jose Cano Figueroa ’26 in second with a time of 4:31.74 and Jed Jones ’25 third in 4:35.12.

On the diving side, Nicholas Chau ’26 placed first in the three-meter board competition with a score of 353.25; first years Brady Stanton ’28 and Jackson Lipscomb ’28 finished third and fifth, respectively, with scores of 317.25 and 283.88. Although the Bulldogs fell to Brown’s Rowland Lawver in the one-meter springboard, Chau claimed second place with a score of 327.53.

Team captain Deng is excited to keep up the momentum.

“Moving up in the Ivy League is the ultimate goal; for the last two years, we have gotten third, so seeing a second-place finish this year would be great,” Deng wrote to the News.

Deng was particularly impressed with the team’s performance in the Brown meet, noting that it is a meet the team always awaits with anticipation. In the last years, the meet went back and forth between the two teams.

Distance and flier swimmer Zachariadis, who is particularly excited about the Ivy League Championships, was also pleased with the team’s major victory over Brown in its first meet of the season. He added that the team “saw some standout performances that set the tone for what’s ahead.” 

As the season continues, Zachariadis looks forward to focusing “on fully enjoying the journey, embracing the challenges, and continually improving.” He thanked Yale fans and hopes they will come out to the Elis as they seek to accomplish their goals. 

According to Henry, the team looks to build on the success of the Brown meet as they prepare to face Columbia this Saturday. His primary goals for the season are to qualify more students for the NCAA Championships, improve the overall record and move up in the Ivy League Championship standings, as well as to grow together as a team.

As Deng kicks off his final season at Yale, he most looks forward to beating Columbia, as in his years at Yale, Columbia was the only team to beat the Bulldogs.

The team will face the Lions on Saturday, Nov. 17, at the Kiphuth Exhibition Pool at 1 p.m.