Men’s Swimming Targets Repeat Season

The men’s swimming team is up to the challenge of topping an unprecedented season. With 17 returners, 11 newcomers, and led by tri-captain seniors Brad Gorter and Thomas Treddenick and junior Wes Newman, the Red boast an experienced and ambitious roster.
“We will rely on our exceptional ability to race and compete in our attempt to repeat our success from last season,” Treddenick said. “Having just finished our time trials, we have seen some amazing swims from guys and have high expectations for the year.”
Last year, Cornell had a record- breaking season, both individually and collectively. Many swimmers achieved personal best times, broke school records and set the bar higher for the top-10 Cornell marks. Also for the first time in 60 years, the Red successfully tallied its first unbeaten dual meet season (10-0). After having beaten the entirety of the Ancient Eight, Cornell was awarded with the unofficial regular season EISL title for the first time in Cornell history.
Of similar importance, Cornell defeated Harvard for the first time since the 1985-86 season, and Princeton for the first time since 1983-84.
The tri- captains this year have each contributed significantly to the Red’s recent success, which has been developing over the past three seasons. Gorter has consistently been among the league’s top perfomers, and Treddenick’s leadership on the team and performance in the sprints will certainly help contribute to this season’s success. Newman qualified last year for the NCAAs in the 200 free with a time of 1:36:18.
“We are coming off a record season last year and we did lose a great senior class,” Newman said. “However, we brought in some great talent in our freshman class that will definitely contribute to our team’s scoring this year. I am sure that with time they will only continue to bring more to the team. As for the rest of the squad, we are looking forward to carrying last year’s momentum into this coming season.”
Cornell’s junior class has six top performers whose efforts were crucial to the team’s success. Junior Phil Baity set the 200 back school record with a time of 1:45:85, junior Kevin Carey has performed well and with great consistency especially in his freestyle events and junior Jackson Wang, a member of the championship 200 medley relay team, helped set a school record and performed especially well in the butterfly. Junior Nick Cochran has received recognition for his performance at the EISLs in the 1000. Junior Chris Donohoe will continue to lead the diving team as the Red’s top diver.
“Thomas and I began our first year at Cornell just as the men’s swim team entered this strong period of competition and talent,” Gorter said. “The season before our freshman campaign, the team had four losses. In the three years since then, the team has lost only four meets. Clearly, the pressure is on us to provide the same opportunities to the younger guys as were offered to us.”