Lions Tack On Trio of Wins to Close Rutgers Invite

Wednesday, December 4

Piscataway, N.J.

All Day

Columbia University

Rutgers Invitational

Photo by: Mike McLaughlin

Lions Tack On Trio of Wins to Close Rutgers Invite

12/7/2019 7:44:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving

Day 4 Results (PDF)Complete Results (PDF)

Columbia women's swimming ended the four-day invitational with nine victories overall

PISCATAWAY, N.J. — The Columbia women's swimming and diving team concluded the Rutgers Invitational on Saturday evening, picking up three more individual victories on the final day of competition.

In all, the Lions registered nine victories in the four-day meet.

"In addition to a thrilling last day of swims, this Columbia team is just a really cohesive, hard-working group of young women and it will be exciting to see what they accomplish as the second half of the season evolves," commented head coach Diana Caskey.

Sophomore diver Briget Rosendahl carded the first victory of the day for Columbia, winning the platform diving event with an NCAA Zones qualifying score of 235.55. First-year Olivia Ricard placed fourth in the event with a score of 186.15.

"Briget was fantastic today," said diving coach Scott Donie. "Totally controlled the contest from start to finish. Plus, a great first result in a collegiate platform contest for Olivia. She has amazing talent and we will see more from her."

Senior captain Helen Wojdylo completed the breaststroke sweep, winning the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:14.74. The victory comes after already having won the 100 breast (1:01.48) and 200 IM (2:01.59) throughout the course of the meet. Wojdylo was joined in the 200 breast final by runner-up and first-year teammate Olivia Jubin (2:15.32), while sophomore Yani Le was fourth in 2:19.44 and first-year Isabella Fratesi sixth at 2:21.19.

First-year Karen Liu won her second event of the meet, claiming top honors in the 200 butterfly with an NCAA 'B' cut time of 1:58.78. Fellow first-year Jessica Peng was sixth in the race with a time of 2:02.48.

Sophomore Mary Pruden had the Lions' top finish in the 200 backstroke, shaving more than a second off her prelims time to claim second place with a finals time of 1:59.90. Senior Julia Samson finished sixth in the race, going 2:03.39. Senior Lisa Zhang won the B final in the event, clocking a 2:02.81.

In the 100 freestlye, junior Jessica He led the Lions with a fifth-place time of 50.90. Sophomore Clare Larsen was close behind, touching the wall in 51.14 to take sixth overall.

The final race of the meet saw Columbia's 'A' team of Jubin, He, Larsen and senior Audrey Richter combine for a third-place time of 3:27.22 in the 400 freestyle relay.

With Columbia's men's divers also competing at the Rutgers Invite, first-year Ben Blizard won his third diving crown in as many days with a triumph on platform with a score of 263.85.

"Ben completed the sweep of all three diving events here," said Donie. "A really strong meet and he is just a freshman. I'm very excited about how his career has started and we have more to come."

Columbia will break from competition for over a month, resuming dual meet against Cornell on Sunday, Jan. 12 at noon ET inside the Percy Uris Natatorium.

For the latest on the Columbia women's swimming and diving program, follow @CULadySwim on Twitter and Instagram, @ColumbiaDiving on Instagram and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.