PENN VS COLUMBIA
- Women: Friday, November 7, 2025
- Men: Saturday, November 8, 2025
- Philadelphia. Pa.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Women:
- Results (PDF)
- Score: Penn 193, Columbia 109
- M
- Men:
- Results (PDF)
- Score: Columbia 166, Penn 134
The Pennsylvania Quakers and Columbia Lions went head-to-head in back-to-back single-gender duals this weekend at Sheerr Pool in Philadelphia, with the Penn women earning a dominant win on Friday before the Columbia men secured a victory on Saturday in both teams’ Ivy League openers.
WOMEN’S RECAP
It was pure domination by the Penn women on Friday, as they won every single event to earn a 193-109 victory in the dual, improving to 3-0 early in the 2025-26 season.
A series of Sheerr Pool Records went down for the Quakers, which has been an early trend this season.
Sophomore Kayla Fu added to her record haul in the 200 free, producing a time of 1:48.57 to give her three Sheerr Pool marks in as many events after setting 100 fly (53.59) and 100 free (49.80) marks earlier this season. Her lifetime best in the 200 free stands at 1:47.10, set at the 2025 Ivy League Championships.
Fu also won the 100 free in a time of 51.38, leading a 1-2-3 sweep for Penn with Connie Wang (51.65) and Olivia Safarikova (52.72) placing 2nd and 3rd.
In the 200 IM, Fu posted the top time in 2:04.41, though Columbia’s Shaelyn Shields was the official event winner in 2:09.74 with Fu’s swim being exhibition after the meet was out of hand in Penn’s favor.
Penn junior Kate Levensten established a new lifetime best and Pool Record in the 100 back, putting up a time of 53.78 to lower her two-day-old Sheerr Pool mark of 54.28 set against Villanova while dipping under her previous best of 54.10 set last season. She is now just 21 one-hundredths shy of the Penn record of 53.57, set by Quinn Scannell in 2018.
The third individual Pool Record breaker was freshman Brianna Cong, who clocked 1:59.28 in the 200 back to fall just shy of her lifetime best of 1:58.76 set last December.
We also saw a Pool Record fall in the 200 medley relay, as Amy Qin (24.70), Kate Handley (29.09), Amber Smith (24.24) and Fu (22.99) combined for a time of 1:41.02, which is within two seconds of the program record set last season (1:39.10), which featured Qin and Fu.
Handley won the 100 breast in a season-best of 1:03.43, Smith paced the 50 free in 23.79, two one-hundredths shy of her season-best set against Villanova, and sophomore Margaret Hu doubled up with wins in the 100 fly (54.92) and 200 fly (2:01.49), though the former was officially exhibition. Columbia’s Ella Chan was the official 100 fly winner in 56.23.
Also earning two individual wins for the Quakers in the pool was senior Anna Moehn, who led the way in the 500 free (4:56.83) and 1000 free (10:02.66).
On the boards, Sophie Slayden (266.10) won 1-meter and Sadie Howard (309.90) led the 3-meter for Penn, while Meredith Holcomb claimed the 200 breast title in 2:17.42, an improvement compared to where she was at this point last season.
Closing out the meet in the 200 free relay, Penn’s Smith (23.97), Cong (23.70), Connie Wang (23.74) and Qin (22.77) combined for a time of 1:34.18 to narrowly edge out Columbia (1:34.67), though the Lions earned the official win due to Penn swimming it as exhibition.
The Columbia relay featured Isabel Lee (24.37), Sally Ma (23.61), Chan (23.27) and Audrey Wolk (23.42).
MEN’S RECAP
Columbia and Penn won eight events apiece at the meet, but the depth of the Lions proved superior as they earned a 166-134 win in their season opener.
“The meet went back and forth throughout,” Columbia head coach Jim Bolster said. “We only won seven of the 16 events (we count eight of 16), but our margin of victory in those seven was enough to carry us through for the win. Fortunately, we were able to stay focused enough to hang on and pick up the season-opening victory. It was Penn’s Homecoming event, and there is no better feeling than temporarily silencing a hometown crowd.”
After Penn won the first three events of the meet, Columbia got its first victory on the board from Isaac Beers, who clocked 49.27 to take the 100 back over Penn’s James Curreri (49.48).
Curreri would claim the 200 back later in the meet in a time of 1:48.52, with Columbia’s Yu Tong Wu (1:49.02) the runner-up.
Wu also won the 200 fly in 1:47.70, while Gian Santos topped the 500 free (4:34.75), Lucas Zhang took the 100 fly (48.81) and Zion James topped the 50 free (20.28) for Columbia.
James was also the runner-up in the 100 free (44.61) behind Penn’s Eddie Jin, who clocked 44.53 in a tight battle. Earlier in the meet, Jin won the 200 free in 1:36.40, just shy of his 1:36.31 PB set last November.
Closing out the meet in the 400 free relay, Columbia’s quartet of Wu (44.83), Sam Eckert (45.79), Derek Hitchens (44.70) and James (43.82) combined for a time of 2:59.14, easily outpacing Penn’s 3:02.67.
Columbia also got big points from diver Joseph Nicol, who swept the 1-meter (333.75) and 3-meter (359.25) events. Teammate Will Cooley was the runner-up in both events, while first-year Derek Hong rounded out the podium in both in his collegiate debut.
“I’m really excited about this team,” head diving coach Scott Donie said. “Watching them work hard and support each other is an absolute joy. Looking forward to getting back to work as we prepare for next weekend.
For Penn, the quartet of Jin, Watson Nguyen, Alex Fu and Liam Campbell opened the meet by winning the 200 medley relay, though times weren’t available for the event.
Nguyen, a sophomore, set a big season-best of 53.88 in the 100 breast to book the victory, while freshmen Aaron Jia and Henry Guo also made an impact, with Jia winning the 1000 free (9:22.71) and Guo topping the 200 IM (1:50.43).
The Quakers also picked up a win from junior Peter Whittington, who ran down Columbia’s Beri Yang on the last 50 to top the 200 breast in 2:00.16 to Yang’s 2:00.25.
