Yale Kicks off 2026 Ivy League Men’s Championships with 1:23.55 Meet Record in 200 Medley Relay

2026 Ivy League Men’s Swimming & Diving Championships

• Dates: Wednesday, February 25–Saturday, February 29
• Location: DeNunzio Pool, Princeton, New Jersey
• Defending Champions: Princeton men (1x)
• Teams: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale
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  • Day 1 Finals

Men’s 200 Medley Relay – Timed Final

• NCAA Record: 1:20.03, Florida (Marshall, de Groot, Buff, Liendo) – 2026
• Ivy League Record: 1:22.42, Harvard (Farris, Simpson, Gures, Marcoux) – 2022
• Ivy League Meet Record: 1:23.79, Harvard (Rincon, Simpson, Gures, Linnihan) – 2023
• Pool Record: 1:24.06, Harvard (2022)
• NCAA Qualifying Times (Qualifying/Provisional): 1:23.61/1:23.85
• 2025 Champion: Yale (Brown, Hazlett, Finch, Nankov) – 1:24.00

Podium:

1. Yale (Lucius Brown, Alexander Hazlett, Nicholas Finch, Deny Nankov), 1:23.55 *MEET RECORD*
2. Princeton (Yanning Zhang, Andrew Zou, Logan Noguchi, Patrick Dinu), 1:24.35
3. Columbia (Isaac Beers, Joshua Corn, Brian Lee, Zion James), 1:25.33
4. Harvard, 1:25.47
5. Cornell, 1:25.75
6. Penn, 1:26.52
7. Dartmouth, 1:26.61
8. Brown, 1:27.80

Sparks were flying from the opening bell, as the Yale Bulldogs kicked off the 2026 Ivy League Men’s Championships with a new meet, pool, and program record in the 200 medley relay. The quartet of junior Lucius Brown, senior Alexander Hazlett, sophomore Nicholas Finch, and junior Deny Nenkov combined for 1:23.55, earning an automatic qualification for the 2026 NCAA Division I Championships, to boot.

Columbia’s Isaac Beers produced the fastest backstroke leadoff, clocking a 21.48 ahead of Harvard’s Marre Gattnar (21.53) and Princeton’s Yanning Zhang (21.54). Yale was just .20 behind Columbia, in 6th place with Brown’s 21.68.

Hazlett cracked a 23.29 breaststroke to propel the Bulldogs into the lead, a full .35 ahead of Harvard whose Joshua Chen went 23.79. Penn moved past Columbia into 3rd place with Watson Nguyen’s 23.13, and Princeton fell back to 5th.

There was more shuffling of the deck on the butterfly leg, but by now, no one was going to catch Yale. Finch put up a dominant 19.85 to pull the Bulldogs further ahead, out of reach of the charging Princeton Tigers, whose Logan Noguchi had the next-fastest fly split in the field, 20.07. Harvard moved into 3rd on the butterfly, thanks to Sonny Wang’s 20.51, while Columbia used a 21.01 leg from Brian Lee to get past Penn and reclaim 4th place with only the freestyle left to swim.

The sprinters took to the water and Yale’s Nankov delivered a 18.73 anchor to seal the win for the Bulldogs. Princeton’s Patrick Dinu had the fastest final 50 at 18.61, but he had inherited a .93 deficit, which proved too much ground to cover in a 50. Columbia’s Zion James had the second-fastest anchor, with 18.71, giving the Lions the momentum they needed to power past Harvard to earn 3rd place and, therefore, a podium finish.

Comparative Splits