Over the winter break, the swim and dive teams were defeated by Yale for their first meet of 2022. The following day the women’s team experienced another loss against Columbia in New York City.
“This was definitely challenging, but overall, it was a great feeling to get back to racing,” said freshmen freestylist Allie Danko about the women’s swim team’s quick turn around.
On Saturday afternoon, the Red’s swim and dive teams faced Brown University at Teagle Pool on Big Red’s Senior Day, when the Cornell teams celebrated their 11 seniors, six women and five men, at the beginning of the meet to recognize their efforts towards the team’s success.
Ultimately, both teams lost against the Bears, but the women’s team had a close meet, finishing at 157-143. The men’s team’s final score was 186-114.
The seniors competed in their final home meet of the season. Their next meets will be on the road before entering the 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships at Princeton, New Jersey.
This is the swim and dive team’s first time hosting a meet at Cornell this season. Due to ongoing pool problems within the athletic department, the past home meets were held at Ithaca College.
“The home meet against Brown was the first time that I have had the opportunity to race a meet in Teagle, and it was absolutely amazing,” Danko said. “It was by far my favorite meet of the season because the energy created at a home meet is unmatched.”
The women’s swim team (2-6, 1-6 Ivy) fought hard to stay in it with five individual event wins and eight second-place finishes. Sophomore freestylist Priscilla Wongo, especially, had a strong meet. Her initial win of the meet was in the 50-yard freestyle, and she then secured first place in the 100 freestyle with a time of 50.80, 1.37 seconds ahead of runner-up junior freestylist Melissa Parker. Then, with the help of freshman freestylist Alex Sykrin, sophomore freestylist Anna Gruvberger and Parker, the team achieved first place in the 400 freestyle relay, finishing at 3:24.49.
Diving only secured victories this week as junior Elise Jendritz and senior Demetra Williams finished in first and second place, respectively, in both events. In the three meter diving event, Jendritz’s final score was 315.98, making her the singular person to score in the 300 point mark.
Entering this meet, the men’s team stands at 1-5 overall and 0-5 in the conference against Brown’s 4-3 record. The Red won five events: 200 relay, 1000 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 50 freestyle and 500 freestyle.
Senior freestylist Jake Lawson was a prominent source of that success, as he came first in both of his freestyling events. Alongside freshman breaststroker Sebastian Wolff, he won the 50 yard freestyle, secured second in the 200 yard IM, and helped to achieve first place in the 200 yard relay.
Going into the end of the 21-22 swim/dive season, the men’s team traveled to New York City to compete against Columbia on Saturday, Jan. 29 at 1 p.m. On Sunday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m., both teams came together for their last meet before the Big Red Diving Invitational to face off against Binghamton.