NEW YORK – The Columbia men's swimming & diving team were dominant in its home opener on Sunday, Nov. 20 in Uris Pool as they won 14 of 16 events to defeat Bucknell 193 - 105. The Lions depth shined with crowns from 10 different swimmers and the first-year class made their presence known in their Uris Pool debut capturing six individual victories on the day.
The Lions kicked-off the afternoon with a triumph in the 200 medley relay. The team of Cole Stevens, Jae Park, Terry Li and Hank Gullick combined for a first-place time of 1:31.73, edging out the Columbia squad of Kevin Frifeldt, Forrest Davis, Drew May and Kevin Dang who finished in a time of 1:32.42.
Columbia followed with a dominating performance in the 1000 freestyle as Brain Tsau led a 1-2-3 sweep with a first-place time of 9:25.87. Eric Ng clocked in with a runner-up time of 9:27.04 and Nikita Bondarenko finished in third place at 9:35.79. Michal Zyla added a victory in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:39.44, while rookie Cole Stevens captured a win in the 100 backstroke at 51.06 just beating out junior Jae Park who place second at 51.90.
The 100 breaststroke featured a one-two punch by the Lions as Nian-guo Liu took first place with a time of 56.89, followed by Forrest Davis as the runner-up at 57.67. Columbia added another sweep in the 200 butterfly, as Zach Pear lead all swimmers at 1:52.21, Joseph Lozano took second place at 1:53.91 and Jack Foster placed third at 1:54.00.
Kevin Frifeldt captured a 50 freestyle crown with a time of 20.49. Terry Li also posted a runner-up time of 21.86 in the event and Julian Rice took third place at 22.06. First-year Kevin Dang picked up a 100 freestyle victory at 46.57, followed by another smothering Columbia performance in the 200 breaststroke as Jacob Zucker earned the win with a first-place time of 2:04.56. Forrest Davis took second place at 2:07.04 and Joe Skimmons placed third at 2:07.80.
Nikita Bondarenko put together an impressive winning performance in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:33.85. Kevin Dang posted his second victory of the afternoon in the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.13, finishing just ahead of teammate Jack Smith at 52.49. Zach Thomas hit the wall first in the 200 I.M. with a time of 1:54.35 and the Lions capped the day with first-place finish in the 200 free relay at 1:24.10 by an all rookie squad of Nian-Guo Liu, Kevin Dang, Cole Stevens and Hank Gullick.
The diving competitions of the day took place at NYU pool. Jayden Pantel once again swept the field for the fifth-consecutive meet in both the one-meter and three-meter dives. Pantel's victories also lead a 1-2-3 Columbia sweep in both events. With a first-place score of 389.90, Pantel earned his 26th-straight win in the three-meter dive to remain unbeaten in his career in dual-meet action, including back-to-back 11-0 seasons in his rookie and sophomore campaigns. He added a one-meter dive victory with a score of 344.55 to remain unbeaten in the event this season.
Kevin Fulton picked up a pair of runner-up finishes on the boards with a score of 297.10 in the three-meter dive and a score of 277.10 in the one-meter dive. He was followed by Shinya Kondo in third place at 216.10 in the one-meter dive and 268.85 in the three-meter dive.
The Lions improve to 3-2 overall in dual-meet action with the victory and will gear for the Brunno Invitational after the Thanksgiving Holiday on Friday, Dec. 2-4.
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