PRINCETON, N.J. — Columbia men's swimming wrapped up the three-day 2019 Big Al Invitational at Princeton's DeNunzio Pool on Sunday evening. The Lions finished fifth overall in the team scoring with a score of 446.5.
 
"I thought we did reasonably well this weekend," said head coach Jim Bolster following the conclusion of the three-day meet. "There was a lot of good competition, a lot of fast swimming. We did not do anything special to prepare for the meet, so I was pleased with the effort and we had a ton of season-best performances.
 
"In the past, this meet didn't have quite the caliber of competition that it had this weekend. The University of Denver and Penn State were here, so that added a dimension to this meet that we haven't seen in the past. So, we didn't have as many second swims as we've had in previous years. I was pleased with the effort and most of the results."
 
After placing second in the preliminary sessions with a personal-best and NCAA B-cut time of 43.10, Albert Gwo finished third overall in the 100-yard freestyle with a finals time of 43.45. The performance rounds out a solid weekend for the junior, who reset the school record in the 50 free (19.50) on Friday and finished fourth in the 100 butterfly (47.56) on Saturday.
 
Also competing in the 100 freestyle, sophomore Jonas Kistorp won the 'B' final in the event on Sunday night, clocking in at 44.10 to finish ninth overall. Kistorp also had a strong overall weekend individually for the Lions, winning the 100 fly (46.79) and finishing fourth in the 100 backstroke (48.98).

In the 200 backstroke, junior Baptiste Leger had Columbia's highest finish, winning the B final after touching the wall in 1:46.76. The time would have ranked fourth overall among the championship finalists.

Sophomore David Wang was the Lions' top finisher in the 200 breaststroke, dropping more than two seconds from his prelims time to place fifth overall with a time of 1:59.04.

 
The 200 butterfly saw freshman Ray Yang qualify for the championship final, finishing strong with a third-place time of 1:46.64. Senior Zac Pear won the consolation final in the same event, posting a time of 1:47.32 – the fifth-best time overall on the night – for ninth overall.
 
In the final event of the meet, the Lions' 400 free relay group of Kistorp, Gwo, Kevin Dang and Hayden Liu posted a fourth-place time of 2:57.16. Gwo had the fastest split at 43.76, while Liu anchored with a 43.86.
 
The Lions were not at full strength for the meet as some key contributors did not compete in the final days and were without their divers who competed at the Rutgers Invitational where freshman Ben Blizard swept all three diving disciplines.
 
"Ben completed the sweep of all three diving events here," said head diving coach Scott Donie on Saturday. "I'm very excited about how his career has started and we have more to come."
 
Columbia breaks from competition for more than a month before returning to dual meet action against Cornell on Tuesday, Jan. 14. The meet will kick off at 1 p.m. ET inside Percy Uris Natatorium.
 
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.