For the women’s swim team (1-4, 1-4 Ivy), this weekend’s dual meet against Penn and Princeton ended up being a repeat of last year. After splitting its first meet of the season against Harvard and Dartmouth, the women only found defeat on Friday at Penn against the home team and Princeton.
Despite strong individual efforts in the 100-yard butterfly and diving events, the women fell to the Quakers, 201-97, and the Tigers.
Without many top finishes in the meet, a 1-2-3 finish in the 100-yard butterfly was one of the few bright spots for the Red.
Junior Holly Chance, junior Ashley Johnson and freshman Leah Tourtellotte swept the top three spots in the event, with each swimmer finishing under the one-minute mark. Chance finished the race in a time of 59.12 with Johnson coming in only three one-hundredths of a second after. Tourtellotte rounded out the pack in 59.32.
Tourtellotte also swam to her second victory of the season in the 50-yard freestyle after dominating in her debut meet only a week prior. She finished with a time of 24.45.
The Cornell women also took second in the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:34.22.
While the women swimmers were having trouble in the pool, junior diver Kristin Rayhack put on outstanding performances on the diving board.
She finished first in both the 3-meter and 1-meter diving events, defeating the competition with scores of 254.90 and 283.60.
Although the women suffered two more losses on the season, the men found some success in a repeat of last weekend’s results.
In Saturday’s meet, the men (2-4, 2-4 EISL) knocked off Penn, 155-87, but fell to Princeton, 145-97. Cornell’s swimmers won five of 13 events overall, and eight of 13 events over Penn. The Red also took first in three of the meet’s first four events.
“We went in knowing we needed to hang tough,” said head coach Joe Lucia. “The team did that the entire day.”
The 400-yard medley relay team claimed the third-fastest time in Cornell history by touching the wall ahead of Princeton in 3:22.30.
Sophomore Mike Smit built upon his strong finishes in the season-opening dual meet. Smit took first in the 500-yard free (4:41.21) and the 1000-yard free (9:36.12).
Sophomore Mike Balint and senior Doug Ernst joined together to take first and second in the 50 free. Balint finished in 20.90 with Ernst coming in only one-tenth of a second later.
“Balint worked really hard over the summer,” Lucia said. “He gave great performances on Saturday.”
Rounding out strong performances for the sophomore class was Richard Bowen, who took first in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Senior Danny Diette captured second place in both the 100- and 200-yard freestyle events while senior diver Anthony Schultz finished second and third on the boards.
“The guys should be commended for their great performances this weekend,” Lucia said. “I’m really pleased with the results.”
The men and women will travel to Binghamton on Dec. 1 to take on the Bearcats.
Archived article by Kristina Kovach
Sun Staff Writer