Men’s and women’s swim and dive faced their first interleague competition on Friday and Saturday at home against Harvard and Dartmouth. When the waves settled, the men’s team emerged with one win and one loss while the women’s team sustained two close defeats.
The men’s team (3-1) demolished Dartmouth by a score of 226.5 to 73.5 and was defeated by Harvard by a score of 181.5 to 118.5.
In diving, senior Soodong Kim secured top-three finishes in both the three-meter and one-meter events. Kim placed second in both diving events with 352.9 points in the three-meter and 309.85 in the one-meter.
In swimming, the men’s team made a statement in the breaststroke events. A pair of sophomores, Haihan Xu and Connor Brown, finished first and second in the 100-yard breaststroke. Xu followed up his winning performance with a third-place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke.
Freshmen also proved to make a significant impact on the men’s team. Freshman Alexander Miao placed second in the 200-yard freestyle, and freshman Josh Toothman followed suit with a second-place finish of his own in the 50-yard freestyle. The men put an exclamation on the meet with a one-two finish in the final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay. Miao anchored the winning relay with a blazing time of 45.42 seconds.
“We are swimming incredibly fast for this point in the season and honestly surprising ourselves with the results,” said sophomore JP Vanderloo.
The women’s team (2-2) was taken down by Dartmouth by a score of 159 to 141 and Harvard by a score of 176.5 to 123.5. Despite the losses, several fast swims show that the women’s team is poised for big wins this season.
Top three finishes were not in a premium for the women’s team. Junior Audrey Holden secured a clutch victory in the 100-yard breaststroke, winning by only nine-tenths of a second. In the next event, sophomore Katherine Yee and freshman Sophia Sim completed a one-two finish in the 200-yard fly. Junior Kate Li also finished second in the 100 yard-freestyle.
Most notably, the women claimed a dominant victory in the 200 yard-freestyle. The trio of Li, sophomore Erin DeHollander and junior Jungmin Yoon impressively finished one-two-three in the 200-yard free. The stunning finish saw Li and DeHollander both break 1:50 with times of 1:49.77 and 1:49.83 respectively.
The first Ivy League meet of the year saw fireworks from both the men’s and women’s teams as they look forward to a long season culminating in the Ivy League Championship Meet in February.
“I’m really excited to see what this team can do in a few months,” Vanderloo said. “Keeping disciplined in and out of the water will allow us to keep up our momentum and accomplish the special things planned for this year.”
The men’s and women’s teams face another three-team meet against Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania on Friday and Saturday in Philadelphia.