Men set new pool records in home meet with Navy, Yale

The men’s swimming and diving team has been busy this break, as the athletes have continued to increase their stamina and post increasingly faster times. They started back on Dec. 6 by soundly beating Binghamton, 197-102. Seniors Wes Newman and Phil Baity, sophomores Dean Holcomb, Bingming Thum and Chris Keady, and freshmen Michael Cai and Julian Chan all won individual events. In total, Cornell captured 12 out of the 16 total events in the meet.
The Red then returned home on Jan. 10 to compete in a tri-meet against Navy and Yale. This meet proved to be the fastest of the year for Cornell, as four previous pool records were broken by Cornell swimmers.
The team of Baity, Cai, Newman and junior Sasha Dobrolioubov combined to beat Yale by less than a second in the 200-meter medley and, in doing so, set a new Teagle Pool record. A few events later, Newman set another pool record in the 200-meter freestyle, beating Navy’s James Anthony by almost two full seconds.
Yet again, Newman set another pool record in the 100-meter fly, lowering his previous best time by half a second. Cai then set a new pool record in the 200-meter breaststroke, previously held by Dave McKechnie.
As the heart of its season is fast approaching, the Red’s continued improvement and impressive times indicate that the team is ready and eager to compete against the best that the Ivy League has to offer.