After a tough loss last weekend to Army, the Cornell men’s swimming and diving team rebounded Saturday at Colgate, defeating the Red Raiders 136-93.
Once again, senior Will Norgard and senior diver Jon Cebulski were top scorers for the Red. Norgard won both the 50-yard and the 100-yard freestyle events, in 21.57 and 47.89.
“Will’s been racing. He has been in the program, now for four years, and has really come in to his own,” Head Coach Joe Lucia said.
The Red swept the top three spots in both of those events.
On the other hand, Cebulski took both the 1- and 3-meter dives. He won the 1-meter with a score of 267.15, and the 3-meter with a 247.95, more than 22 points ahead of Colgate’s second place finisher.
Junior Ryan Buckham also had a strong race for the Red, swimming on both first-place-finishing relay teams, while also taking second in the 200-yard freestyle, with a time of 1:46.62. Freshmen Jay Thielker ended up winning the 200-yard freestyle in 1:46.06.
Other winners for Cornell were junior John Kenny, who won 1000-yard freestyle in 9:50.72 and sophomore Bill Dillon, who took first place in both the 200-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke.
“It wasn’t a high pressure meet for us,” Lucia said, “but it was still a good win.”
Next week, the Red travels to Providence to face off against two of the top teams in the Ivy League, Brown and Columbia.
“Next week will determine how the Championships go, we will be resting mostly in practice so we can swim fast,” Lucia said.
With the win, the Red moves to 2-5 overall, with Championships just a month away. The men return home in two weeks, when it faces Harvard and Dartmouth.
Women Dominate
With the Cornell women’s swimming and diving team’s win on Saturday, it now has a three meet win streak going in to the last two meets of the season. The Red defeated the Red Raiders 129-109.
Junior Yoko Shibata was the top scorer for the Red, taking both the 100-yard and the 200-yard freestyle events. The Red also placed second in the 100 and third in the 200.
“We went in thinking that it was going to be close. I am very impressed with how we swam,” coach Marrie Neumer said.
Junior Tina Shih rounded out Cornell’s sweep of the freestyle events, taking the 50-yard freestyle in 25.24.
The Red also placed high in many of the distance events. Junior Virginia Morgan won the 1,000-yard freestyle, taking it in 10:42.02, more than 10 seconds faster than her nearest competitor. Junior Whitney Gates also took the 200-yard backstroke, earning the Big Reds sixth individual event victory of the day.
In addition, Cornell won the 400-medley relay with a time of 4:04.05. Juniors Karen Tornabene and Shayne Geneva, freshmen Megan Gutman, and senior tri-captain Kellee Ngan each swam a leg of the relay.
One of the top stories coming out of the women’s swimming and diving team is the multitude of injuries. Senior tri-captain suffered a concussion over break and is not at full strength. Freshman Jamie Mayjek and junior Heather Dombrady are both battling shoulder injuries, and a number of other swimmers are battling the flu.
“We are pretty tied and broken down, but we want to give Columbia a run next weekend,” Neumer said.
With the win, the red moves to 4-4 overall and 2-4 in the Ivy’s.
There are four weeks until the Ivy Championships and the women are already beginning to prepare. “We have already begun to pre-taper, and I believe we have a chance to finish five out of eight at Ivy’s,” Neumer added.
The Red takes on Ivy rivals Columbia and Brown, next weekend in Providence.
Archived article by Josh Vlasto