Columbia
Ivy League Championships
Men's Swimming & Diving Stages Outstanding Rally to Finish Third at Ivies
3/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
PRINCETON, N.J. - After beginning the 2010 Ivy League Championships in fifth place, the Columbia men's swimming and diving team rallied back from a 154 point deficit to vault ahead of both Yale and Penn and take third place by 40 points. Junior Adam Powell also added another Ivy League title to his resume, as he won the championship in the 100m free.
Coming into Saturday night's finals, the Columbia team sat in fourth place overall by just one and a half points. Penn's tenuous hold on third proved to be just that, as the Lions used strong swims across the board to take control of third place, and end the day with 996.5 points, to Penn's 959.5. Princeton won the title, while Harvard came in second.
The day opened with the 100 free. Columbia's distance squad did well, as sophomore Alex Smith came in 12th place overall, with a time of 9:25.01. First-year Sean MacKenzie came in just behind him in 9:25.49, good for 13th.
Columbia had three swimmers in the 200 back, one in each of the finals. Sophomore Johnny Bailey swam the bonus final in 1:52.70, good for third in his heat and 19th overall, while first-year Patrick Dougherty came in at 1:49.83 in the consolation final, good for 11the place. Senior co-captain Darren Pagan was the lone Lion in the championship final, and he came in fifth place with a time of 1:48.19, earning valuable points for the team total.
In the 100 free, Powell was the second seed coming into the night's finals, but it didn't look that way when he took to the blocks. The junior led from the start and never trailed, as he won his second Ivy League title of the weekend, hitting the wall in 43.92, an NCAA 'B' cut time. First-year Mitchell Phillips also did well in the 100 free, as he finished third in the bonus final, with a time of 46.13, good for 19th overall.
Two seniors led the way for Columbia in the 200 breaststroke, as both Ross Ramone and Eric Tang qualified for the championship finals of the event. And the pair hit the wall nearly simultaneously, as Ramone took sixth in 2:02.23, and Tang finished seventh in 2:02.34. Two swimmers also took part in the consolation final for the Lions, as first-year Erik Mai took second in the heat in 2:04.25, and sophomore John-Howard Sidman came in 15th overall in 2:06.27. The points earned by those four swimmers marked the turning point for Columbia, as that was the moment the Lions surpassed the Quakers in the standings for the final time.
So Columbia's performance in the next event, the 200 butterfly, proved to be crucial to the Lions' attempt to take sole control of third place, even though the team didn't have a swimmer in the championship heat. Senior Nick Barron set the tone for the Lions, as he was the top seed in the bonus final. The co-captain lived up to expectations, winning the heat with a time of 1:51.65, good for 17th place overall. Sophomore Bruno Esquen led the charge for Columbia in the consolation finals, as he won the heat in 1:50.05, good for ninth overall. Junior Josh Brown and sophomore Robert Eyckmans were also in the consolation heat, and came in 13th and 16th respectively, with times of 1:52.02 and 1:52.43.
With just two events left to be scored, Columbia just needed to stay ahead of Penn in order to clinch third place as a team. In 1m diving, junior David Levkoff and first-year Jason Collazo contributed 29 crucial points to the team's total. Levkoff came in 11th overall after scoring 271.35, while Collazo finished 14th with 266.20 points. Those diving points proved to be imperative to the team total, as Columbia had a comfortable lead heading into the final event, the 400 free relay. The Lions had enough of a lead that the relay team just had to avoid being disqualified in order for Columbia to take that third place spot for good. The team of Pagan, Dougherty, Phillips and Powell did better than that. The group came in third, with a time of 3:00.52, giving Columbia 54 team points, and sealing the Lions' third place finish. It was the highest finish for Columbia in over four years, and the best finish for the graduating senior class.
For complete meet results, click here.
Final Scores (through Event 21)
PRINCETON - 1552.5
HARVARD - 1341.5
COLUMBIA - 996.5
PENN - 959.5
YALE - 895.5
CORNELL - 863.5
BROWN - 699
DARTMOUTH - 526
Players Mentioned
