On Saturday, the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will travel to Brown University to close out the regular season. The Red aims to end the regular season on a high note and build strong forward momentum heading into championship season. With Ivy League Championships fast approaching, the Red will attempt to gain its first Ivy League regular season win against Brown University.“We have been focusing as a team and working on the little things that are going to help us score more points and have greater depth,” sophomore freestyler Katie Morin said.The men’s swimming and diving team (1-6) is looking forward to the meet after last year’s extremely close finish with Brown. Last season, the meet came down to the final relay, and the Red lost with its closest finish of the season at 155-145. This year, however, the Red aims to put the past behind the team, implement its hard work and beat Brown. “We have had a couple of hard losses, but I think the whole team is ready to finish the season strong,” sophomore diver Thomas Hallowell said. “We lost a heartbreaking meet last year to Brown, losing on the last relay, so I know everyone is motivated to go and beat them in their own pool.”
Hallowell added that the men are likely to have a close finish again this season.
“It is definitely going to be a close meet. We lost by the smallest margin last year, and neither team has lost any of its motivation. Every race will be a battle and we are going to have to perform really well to be successful,” he said.
With the regular season coming to a close, the Red wants to capitalize on its effort throughout the long winter season to achieve the end results the team has worked towards.“We have worked really hard this year in and out of the pool, and I know all of that hard work will pay off,” he said. “For some, our hard training has really shown through at some meets, and hopefully Brown is no exception. Everyone is really motivated to swim fast and compete well at Brown.” On the other side, the women’s swimming and diving team (1-6) also looks to end its season successfully. Last year, the Red had an extremely successful win against Brown and the team wants the same result in this meet. “The team had a strategy meeting this morning, so we are now all on the same page about how to approach this Brown meet,” sophomore swimmer Bethany Douglas said. “They were tough competition last year, but the women’s team came out on top. So we’re hoping to repeat that victory this year that looks very conceivable at this point.” According to Morin, the two teams compete on similar levels, but the Red hopes its recent intense practice will give Cornell the advantage.“Brown is definitely our closest competition in the Ivy League,” she said. “Coming off of a win at Colgate and a loss at Columbia, we have definitely been working hard the past few weeks to try and get ourselves in that championship frame of mind.”In addition to the swimmers, the divers have also has been practicing hard in order to pull out the victory.“We have been working hard at practice during this past week to try and take down Brown this weekend,” sophomore diver Elisha Elovic said. “They are a close Ivy competitor and the divers have just been putting out heads down and putting in the work to try and win.”The early morning workouts have been making the difference, Douglas noted.“Our team is definitely more fit and more mentally ready to compete in the league because of the work done at 6 a.m. in Bartels,” she said.The women are confident that they can have the level of success they achieved last year and put themselves into the right competitive mindset going into the final part of the 2012-13 season. “[In Ivy Championships] we are looking to improve in what we did last year,” Morin said. “We are looking to just go in and race and try and get our hands on the wall before everyone else. Hopefully, we will get some good times.”The men are hoping the meet against Brown will prove they are a contender in the Ivy League and prepare the team for the championships.“It is hard to gauge just how competitive the Ivy League Championships will be, since most swimmers will have tapered, but I think a victory at Brown will leave us with the taste of victory as we head into Championship season,” Hallowell said. “It’s really important to have great swims at Brown so we can assert ourselves as competitors in the Ivy League.”
Original Author: John McGrorty