Cameron Pollack | Sun Photography Editor

The Red saw a 1-2-3 sweep of 100-yard breaststroke.

November 15, 2016

Men’s Swimming and Diving Defeats Dartmouth, Falls to Harvard in Tri-Meet

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Cornell men’s swimming and diving started its season off with a strong performance in Hanover this past weekend, competing in a tri-meet against Dartmouth and Harvard. The Red defeated Dartmouth while falling to Harvard — the same result it had in the Dartmouth-Harvard tri-meet during the 2015 season.

“This first league meet is always interesting because it shows us exactly where we are at,” said head swim coach Wes Newman. “Our goal as a team is to continue improving from this point on and building on our performances. I’m satisfied with how the team swam and dove this past weekend, and know that we are on track to continue improving over the course of the season.”

Cornell lost to Harvard with a score of 198-96, while defeating Dartmouth, 176-123. These results are not far from the results of the meet last year, when the Red fell to Harvard, 188.5-106.5, and defeated Dartmouth, 183-117.

“The energy was really high for this meet and it was really exciting to see. I think that alone was a big improvement from last year,” said senior tri-captain Luke Reisch.

The team aims to improve its dual meet record and overall standing in the Ivy League this season, and having positive energy on deck will help it gain the momentum it needs to deliver exciting results. At last year’s Ivy League Championship meet, Harvard was second, while Cornell was fifth and Dartmouth was eight.

Cornell had many strong individual and relay performances during the meet, including a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 yard breaststroke, led by freshman Ryan Brown in 57.74.

Junior captain Jack Brenneman also led a 1-2-3 sweep for the Big Red, winning the 50-yard free in a time of 21.02. Cornell also had a 1-2 sweep in the 400-yard freestyle relay, with the team of junior Alex Evdokimov, Reisch, Brenneman, and freshman Calvin Hulse winning in a time of 3:09.93.

The Big Red saw many impressive performances from its freshman class. Dylan Curtis placed third in the 100-yard backstroke and sixth in the 200 yard backstroke, while also contributing to one of the team’s dominant 400-yard freestyle relays and to its 200-yard medley relay team, which was second to Harvard.

Marc Morizano placed third in the 200-yard freestyle and fourth in the 500-yard freestyle, while Braedon Wong was fourth in the 100-yard backstroke, Ryan Brown was third in the 100-yard breaststroke and fourth in the 200-yard breaststroke and Jack Mahoney was fourth and fifth in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle.

The freshmen are living up to the high expectations placed upon them as a recruiting class.

“I think everyone was pretty happy with how they swam,” Reisch said. “I was proud of the way everyone got out there and raced. We had a lot of good finishes but we all still have a lot of things we can work on to improve for the future. All in all I’d say the meet was a huge success.”

The team will compete at home this weekend at Cornell’s Teagle Pool, where it will host both Princeton and Penn. The diving competitions will take place at 5 p.m. Friday, while the swim meet will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday.