Columbia men’s coach, Jim Bolster. Archive photo courtesy of Columbia Athletics.
The Columbia swimming and diving community was on hand at the Cornell meet in Uris Natatorium on Saturday to honor Jim Bolster for his thirty-year tenure at the helm of the men’s program. Coach Bolster’s team didn’t disappoint their fans as they downed the Big Red 184.5 to 115.5.
The Lions began with a victory in the 400 medley relay from Michael Fox-Moles, Stanley Wong, David Jakl, and Alex Ngan (3:22.27). Cornell’s quartet of Dylan Sali, Victor Luo, Harry Harpham, and Karol Mlynarski took third.
Columbia senior Harry Stephenson (9:34.80) led a Lion sweep in the 1000 free. His teammates James Delgado and Jack Foster were second and third. Jack Pollack of the Big Red was fourth. Columbia freestylers showed their strength in the 200 distance as well with Dominik Koll (1:42.59), Kevin Quinn, and Philipp Gaissert all coming in ahead of Cornell’s Taylor Wilson.
Cornell freshman Sali was the victor in the 100 back in 51.08. Fox-Moles and Ben Xu of Columbia finished second and third, respectively. The Big Red got another win when Luo (57.59) finished well ahead of Columbia’s Codi Saunders and Liam Sosinsky in the 100 breast.
Cornell’s Hapham charged hard on the back half of the 200 fly but couldn’t quite catch eventual winner Terry Li of Columbia, who out-touched Hapham 1:51.21 to 1:51.41. The Lions’ Jakl (20.79) led teammates Ngan and Wong in a sweep of the 50 free. Cornell freshman David Zurmuhl took fourth. In the 100 free, Gaissert of Columbia won in 46.81, while Cornell’s Wilson came in just ahead of Columbia’s Saunders for second.
Cornell freshmen Sali (1:50.61) picked up his second win in the 200 back; his teammate Luke Reisch gave the Big Red their first 1-2 sweep. Thomas Norman of Columbia took third. Cornell’s Luo also scored a double; his 2:02.96 first-place finish in the 200 breast was only a tick off his season best time, and nearly five seconds in front of Columbia’s John Santoro. Luo’s Big Red teammate Sosinsky was third.
Columbia freshman Nikita Bondarenko won the 500 free in 4:39.51, ahead of teammate Delgado and Cornell’s Michael Reynolds. Drew May of Columbia tied his season-best time of 50.71 in winning the 100 fly. Teammate Ngan finished second, just .15 in front of Ben Catanese of Cornell. Jakl won the final event for Columbia with a 50.46 in the 100 IM. Cornell’s Sali and May touched second and third.
The diving points were split fairly evenly between the two teams as Cornell’s Phillip Truong (325.50) outscored Micah Rembrandt of Columbia and Tommy Hallowell of Cornell to win the three-meter event, while Rembrandt (316.35) took the one-meter title over Truong and Columbia’s Derek Kim.
Columbia capped the meet with a victory in the 200 free relay. The quartet of Li, Quinn, Matt Swallow, and Gaissert (1:25.91) finished a second ahead of Cornell’s Mlynarski, Reisch, Eric Kim, and Zurmuhl.
Columbia University Men 184.5 – 115.5 Cornell University Men
Congratulations, Jim. Here’s to 30 more!!