Columbia vs Cornell (Men)
- January 20, 2024
- New York, N.Y.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Courtesy: Columbia Athletics
NEW YORK — The Columbia men’s swimming and diving team bounced back with a huge win on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Cornell Big Red, 165-128, at Uris Natatorium.
The Lions opened things up in style, placing first and second in the 200-yard medley relay. Columbia was led by the team of Andy Huang, Matthew Lou, Brian Lee, and Zion James who finished with a time of 1:30.44 to take first place.
In the first individual event of the afternoon, Columbia had the crowd on its feet. Zach Vasser cruised to a dominant victory in the 1000-free, clocking in with a time of 9:32.12. In a competitive race for second, it was Hunter Kroll who emerged victorious, beating out Cornell’s Julian Correa by 0.2 seconds.
Stanford Li continued to dominate in the backstroke. First, he won the 100-back with a time of 49.75. He went on to win the 200-back later in the afternoon with a time of 1:47.97
Demirkan Demir was back to his old ways of dominating the breaststroke, winning the 100-breast with a time of 55.92. He also won the 200-breast with a time of 2:03.00.
Adam Wu picked up right where he left off yesterday when he won three events, winning another event today. This time, he won the 200-fly with a time of 1:48.09.
In the final event of the day, Columbia earned a win in the 400-free relay. The team of Li, Samuel Eckert, René Strezenicky, and James clocked in at 3:01.45 to take first place.
Other winners for the Lions included Zion James who won the 50-free with a time of 20.83, and Brian Lee who won the 100-fly with a time of 48.36.
As for the divers, Joseph Nicol kept rolling. After earning his first collegiate win in the 3m yesterday at Army, he once again won the 3m competition today with a score of 331.88. He completed the first sweep of his career when he won the 1m dive later in the afternoon with a personal best score of 328.35.
“It’s great thrill as a coach to see someone perform at a high-level,” Head Diving Coach Scott Donie said. “Joe really defended his home pool and boards today with his first ever college dual meet sweep. Go Lions!”
Full results from the meet, including all of the Lions’ top performers and times, can be found HERE.
Next up for Columbia will be a non-conference meet against Navy on Friday, January 26 at Uris Natatorium. The competition is scheduled to begin at noon.
Courtesy: Cornell Athletics
NEW YORK — The Cornell men’s swimming and diving team closed out its final Ivy League road meet of the season with podium finishes in 15 of 16 events on Saturday in a 165-128 loss to Columbia from the Percy Uris Natatorium.
The Big Red would earn four individual victories over the day, with three coming via the freestyle variety. Sophomore Pietro Ubertalli continued his impressive second season on East Hill with a gold in the 200, finishing over a second ahead of second place with a final time of 1:40.06. Underclassmen counterpart Julian Correa also continued his excellent first season for the Big Red by putting together a 26.76 split over the last 50 yards to clear fellow freshman Zach Vasser of the Lions to earn gold in the 500 by just .06 seconds. Cornell’s other top spot in the freestyle events came from Jack Banks, as the Kentucky product swam an event-best 21.88 split over the first length to grab the 100 by 0.29 seconds over Columbia’s Yu Tong Wu.
The team’s final victory on the day came via a podium sweep by the upperclassmen in the 200-IM. Sebastian Wolff led the charge for the red and white by earning gold (1:50.68), finishing less than a second ahead of senior counterpart Paige daCosta. Junior Reid Brophy closed out the top three spots in the event for the Big Red, touching the wall at 1:55.13.
Cornell’s names were also shuffled throughout the top of the final leaderboard in many other events. The Big Red earned a 2-3-4 finish in the 200-Butterfly, as Joseph Gurski (1:48.86), Jacques Grove (1:51.76), and Andrew Lin (1:52.65) each earned points for the Big Red on the evening. Gurski and Lin followed up their performance in the 100 with one of four 2-3 finished for the team on the evening, grabbing silver and bronze in the 200-Butterfly. Haihan Xu (2:05.73) and Thatcher Dowdy (2:09.79) also put together a good showing in the 200-Breaststroke, earning second and third-place finishes.
Cornell’s relay teams also put together a shift to earn points toward their overall scoring. The Big Red kicked off the meet with a bronze in the 200-Medley, as Logan Holt, Wolff, Gurski, and Will Taner swam a combined 1:30.94, just .50 seconds behind Columbia’s A-team, who took home the top spot with a 1:30.44. The team would bookend the meet with a runner-up position in the 400-Freestyle, with Ubertalli, Banks, Gurski, and Taner finishing almost four seconds ahead of third place (3:01.98). Junior Soodong Kim and Matthew Warren closed out the top scoring on the night for the visitors by earning second and third place in both the 1-Meter and 3-Meter diving events.
With Saturday’s final result, the Big Red has now lost 12 consecutive head-to-head matchups with the Lions and will have to wait until the 2024-25 season to try and earn its first win over its Ivy League foes since a 164-136 victory in Ithaca on Jan. 21, 2011.
UP NEXT
The Big Red will close its Ivy League regular season when it hosts Brown from Teagle Pool beginning at noon on Saturday, Jan. 27. Cornell will also celebrate its six seniors in Pearce Bailey, Paige daCosta, Gabe Hartmann, Logan Holt, Kyle Pro, and Matthew Warren.