Columbia men’s swimming and diving team (2-1, 1-1 in Ivy League) hosted the U.S. Military Academy (2-2, 1-0 in Patriot League) on Sunday, November 17, at Uris Pool in New York, wrapping up three days of consecutive meets. The Lions took 11 events; the Black Knights won 5. Complete results here.
Columbia opened the score with a 1-2 finish in the 3-meter diving: Micah Rembrandt (295.20) and Derek Kim outscored Army’s Joshua Urnezis and Ed Emery.
The 200 medley relay was close, but Columbia’s Fox Michael -Moles, Codi Saunders, David Jakl, Alex Ngan prevailed over Army’s Samuel Mo, Dion Hart, Michael Dustin, and Christopher Szekely 1:32.38 to 1:33.02.
Casey Woudenberg (9:38.91) and Clay Harmon (9:43.45) of the Black Knights led the way in the 1000. The fastest Lion was James Delgado in third.
Army continued its winning ways in the 200 free as Szekely touched first in 1:40.98, solidly ahead of Columbia’s Alex Mango and Nikita Bondarenko.
The Lions’ Jakl led a 1-2-3 sweep of the 100 back. Teammates Fox-Moles and Ben Xu were second and third, respectively. The first Black Knight was Samuel Mo.
Joon Chung of Army won the 100 breast by .04 in 58.62. Columbia’s Saunders made a valiant effort but couldn’t quite catch Chung; he finished second ahead of teammate Matthew Swallow.
Kevin Quinn (1:49.55) and Terry Li led Columbia to a 1-2 finish in the 200 fly. Three Black Knights followed: Will Viana, Grayson Whitten, and Zach Blankenbeker.
The Lions’ Philipp Gaissert and Stanley Wong led the way in the 50 free with a 20.91 to 21.02 finish. Army’s Dustin, Woudenberg and Adam Sjoholm were bunched together in the next wave.
Rembrandt (301.73) of Columbia won his second diving event with the 1-meter. This time 2-4 went to Urnezis (Army), Kim (Columbia) and Emery (Army).
Columbia’s Jakl got his second win by negative-splitting the 100 free. Out in 23.25, he came back in a 22.75 to rob Army’s Szekely of the win, 46.00 to 46.31. Gaissert was third.
Thomas Norman of Columbia won the 200 back in a season-best 1:52.03. Viana of Army was second; the Lions’ Christian Vivadelli, third.
The Black Knights’ Chung made it a clean sweep of the breaststroke events, winning the 200 in 2:07.14 ahead of Columbia teammates John Santoro and Harry Stephenson.
Columbia took the top three spots in the 500: Jack Foster (4:39.11) was followed by Delgado and Tyler Mattingly. The first Black Knight was Woudenberg.
Drew May (50.94) and Gaissert of Columbia touched first and second in the 100 fly. Army’s Samuel Mo tied for third with Columbia’s Mango. Daniel Mo and Dustin of Army were just milliseconds behind.
Army’s Viana was the early leader in the 200 IM but Ronald Chen of Columbia put up the fastest breaststroke leg, allowing him to take the lead and hang on for the win. He finished in 1:55.33. Black Knight teammates Samuel Mo and Viana were second and third, respectively.
In the 400 free relay it was the U.S. Military Academy touching out Columbia, 3:09.42 to 3:09.69. Army’s relay consisted of Szekely, Woudenberg, Kenny Yacynych, and Viana, while Columbia’s was composed of Eric Traub, Saunders, Foster, and Julian Radice.
Gaissert swam against Army, but he did indeed sit out of the first two meets. I’m hoping it wasn’t for disciplinary reasons.
Good for Columbia. Thought it was gonna be a rough year for them with Dan Gosek (huge point scorer for the lions) and a few others stepping down from the team along with Gaissert’s disciplinary incident (which has effectively suspended him from a number of dual meets). Glad they are bouncing back