NEW YORK — Winning 11-of-16 events, the Columbia men's swimming and diving team registered a 172-128 victory over the visiting Yale Bulldogs to remain undefeated at 3-0 on the young season.
 
The triumph comes one week after downing Penn, 171-129, in the team's Ivy League opener.
 
"It's always nice to win a dual meet, but that's all it is," said 36th-year head coach Jim Bolster after the win. "It doesn't necessarily mean we're going to beat Yale at the end of the year, but that's our goal. This gives us some insights as to where their talents lie, what we're going to have to do. Penn and Yale in their cheers ... they say, 'See you at Ivies,' with the intention that you got us today, but wait until Ivies.
 
"It's always nice to win, especially at home, but don't place a lot of importance on that other than the way our kids responded to the opportunity to swim fast against a good opponent, and they stepped up. We happened to do both today, they swam well and they won, so that's great. And 3-0 sounds really nice."
 
The first four events of the day were split, with Yale claiming the top spot in both the 3-meter dive and the 1,000-yard freestyle and the Lions winning the 200 medley relay (1:29.53) as well as senior Nian-Guo Liu winning the 200 freestyle for the third time in as many meets, going 1:37.46.
 
Liu's victory would kickstart a win streak for the Lions, going on to win the next four events as senior Cole Stevens picked up a win in the 100 backstroke (49.73), Andy Lee took the 100 breaststroke (57.19), Ray Yang claimed the 200 butterfly (1:48.51) and junior Albert Gwo one again came up victorious in the 50 free with a near-pool-record time of 19.98. It was the first time Gwo had registered a time under 20 seconds in a dual meet.
 
Yale came back to win the 3-meter springboard, with Columbia first-year Ben Blizard taking second with a score of 291.68. Blizard was also Columbia's top finisher on the 3-meter springboard, posting a score of 307.43.
 
"We had some miscues in the first event," commented diving coach Scott Donie. "The divers showed great character and really bounced back in the second event and I'm very proud of all of them. A great team effort!"
 
Following the 1-meter, Gwo won his second event of the day as he clocked a 44.40 in the 100 free before junior Baptiste Leger finished first in the 200 back with a time of 1:48.04, leading a 1-2-3 finish for Columbia ahead of Joe Skimmons (1:50.20) and Joey Licht (1:50.46).
 
In the 200 breast, first-year Michael Chang came into the wall first with a top time of 2:03.91. The next event saw Liu post a time of 4:31.58 to win the 500 free.
 
After Yale earned a 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 butterfly, Lions sophomore Hayden Liu finished the individual racing with a win in the 200 IM at 1:50.30 ahead of teammate William Tan who took second in 1:54.48.
 
Although Columbia had sealed the team victory, the Bulldogs finished the day by setting a new Uris Natatorium record in the 400 free relay, going 2:58.66.
 
Hosting their final dual meet of the 2019 calendar year, the Lions will face off against defending conference champs Harvard next Saturday, Nov. 22 at Uris Natatorium. The meet is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.
 
For the latest on the Columbia men's swimming and diving program, follow @ColumbiaMenSwim on Twitter, @ColumbiaMenSwimming and @ColumbiaDiving on Instagram, and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.