Cornell men’s swimming and diving is on a roll. The Red opened its season at home this past weekend against Binghamton, and the men posted several blazing fast times in the pool to beat Binghamton en route to a 165.5-117.5 victory.
In the two men’s diving events, the 1-meter and 3-meter dives, the Red was represented by sophomore Noah Sterling and junior Deyon Godbay, and the two divers performed well, with Godbay earning first place in the 1-meter and Sterling doing the same in the 3-meter dive.
“Our men dove solidly in this meet, their scores have risen since the Buffalo scrimmage,” said diving head coach Veronica Ribot-Canales. The only previous competition the Red have had this season was an unscored scrimmage against Buffalo.
Sterling and Godbay are currently the only men’s divers able to compete for Cornell, as two other men on the team have had injury troubles early this season that have kept them from competing in competitions.
On the swimming side, Cornell’s men excelled as well. The Red began the meet with a blistering fast 3:21.71 time in the 400 medley relay swam by junior Dylan Sali, senior Victor Luo, junior Luke Reisch and sophomore Kevin Ma. This relay time posted by the quartet was quick enough to beat the Cornell B team relay by almost eight full seconds and Binghamton’s best team in the event by ten seconds. The time was a new pool record for the 400 medley for Cornell.
The 400 medley has been one of the men’s swimming team’s most impressive events so far this season, and will be a big contributor when it comes to more competitive Ivy League meets, according to head coach Wes Newman ’09.
“We knew going into the meet that we could have a strong Medley Relay,” Newman said. “We have talented swimmers in each of the four strokes, so [there’s] no real weak leg. It should be an exciting event for us all season.”
Cornell’s swimmers dominated the rest of the 16 swimming events throughout the meet as well, posting at least the fastest time in each event including twelve 1-2 finishes and three full podium sweeps.
The meet was simply another display of all the hard work Newman and his swimming team have been putting in since the start of the preseason to prepare for this year. The Red now has won 12 straight non-conference meets. Newman and his team use the performances in these less pivotal meets to gauge their skill level for when they face other Ivy opponents.
“Our team swam very well against Binghamton. We’ve been training very hard, but the guys were focused and raced tough,” Newman said. “It bodes well for later in the season. Hopefully this meet’s results lead to great results later this season.”
Cornell gets its first shot at Ivy opponents when the Crimson and the Big Green come to visit.
“We are very excited to host Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend at home,” Newman said. “Harvard was recently ranked as having the top freshman class in the country by Collegeswimming.com, so they will be tough to beat, however our guys will be ready to get out there and give it their all.”