After strong outings by both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams at Colgate last weekend, both squads are looking for similar performances this weekend against Brown and Columbia. The women are looking to come away with a .500 record in the Ivy League, while the men are hoping to come home with their first victory of the season in the Ancient Eight.
Tomorrow, the Red will be in Providence to face the Bears for a 9:30 a.m meet for the men, and a 12:00 p.m. engagement for the women, which will also include the Lions of Columbia. The men, then travel to New York to battle the Lions on Sunday.
In the men’s division, Brown and Columbia sit at the top of the league, and will be quite a handful for Cornell, which is 2-5 overall, and 0-5 in the EISL.
But the team is not discouraged.
Head coach Joe Lucia believes that the Red is going to be a good challenge for the Bears and Lions, and that an upset may be waiting in the wings.
“We’re going to swim tough and give them a hard time,” Lucia of the upcoming meets, “[and] we’re really looking forward to it.”
Senior Will Norgard helped lead Cornell to its 136-93 win over Colgate last Saturday, and is expected to pull through again for the Red.
Senior Jim Drvostep, and juniors John Kenny and Ryan Buckham have been the team’s most consistent swimmers this season along with Norgard, and are also expected to do well in their respective events this weekend.
“We’re very healthy,” says Lucia of his team, “and everyone is ready to go.”
As for the women, they are heading into their last Ivy dual meet before the Ancient Eight championships, and stand at 4-4 overall, and 2-4 in the league.
Senior co-captain Keelee Ngan believes that the Red has a good shot of walking away with at least one win tomorrow.
“It’s going to be a good competitive meet,” says Ngan, “and a good chance for us to see where we stand against Brown and Columbia before the Ivy Championships.”
During last season, the Red lost a heart-breaker to the Lions in a meet that came down to the last event in order to decide a winner. The women are expecting a similar match up this year, and hope for a more pleasant outcome.
Among the Red’s most consistent swimmers are juniors Yoko Shibata, Virginia Morgan, and Shayne Geneva, sophomore Courtney Tawresey, and freshman Jayme Majek, who missed out on last Saturday’s 129-109 win over Colgate due to an injury.
The team has been working hard at practice and is feeling the effects of it.
“We’re tired still,” says Ngan of the time spent at practice. b
But the women are hoping that all the hard work pays off.
The men are four weeks removed from the EISL Championships, and the women are only three weeks from the Ivy Championships. It may turn out that this weekend’s results could indicate how well the Red will fair at their postseason competitions in the weeks to come.
Archived article by Tammy Fang