The men’s swimming and diving team will travel to Brown this weekend to compete in the Ivy League Championships. The Red (1-7, 0-7) aims to continue its strong forward progress and and to benefit from the long season of intense training. At the championships last season, the Red placed eighth overall with a total score of 575.5 points.This year, the Red looks to surpass last years finish standings-wise, as well as to accumulate more overall team points. By focusing on each athlete swimming a personal best, the Red looks to continue moving forward as a team.“The team is feeling really good going into this meet,” senior diver James O’Neil said. “We’ve been training really well this whole season, and our focus has been on championships ever since our last dual meet a month ago.”Although the Red lost all meets against Ivy opponents during the season, the team’s closest match-up was against Dartmouth, which ended in a 148-152 defeat. Heading into the championships, the team has reduced the amount of work athletes perform on a daily basis in order to better rest for the strenuous championship competition.With a rested team that is focused on exceeding all expectations, the Red will be going into the championships looking to climb their way up through the Ivy League.“In order to have the best showing at this meet, we have really been trying to motivate each other,” O’Neil said. “Our team dynamics have proven to be the best this year out of my four years on this team. We all boost’each other’s morale and instill confidence in one another, and I think that will have a huge impact on how we swim and dive this weekend.”The Red also looks to break a variety of team records at the meet. Junior Taylor Wilson is ranked No. 11 in the 1000 free, freshman Victor Luo is ranked No. 15 in the 100 breast and junior Harry Harpham is ranked No. 13 in the 200 fly.“I can’t make many predictions for this meet,” O’Neil said. “The Ivy League gets faster and better each year, but I expect to see a few records come off the board this year, just as the women’s team did.”
Original Author: John McGrorty