NEW YORK — Junior Albert Gwo posted a new Uris Pool record in the 50-yard freestyle going a speedy 19.71, and the Columbia men's swimming and diving team pushed past Cornell, 167-133, on Tuesday afternoon in the team's first meet of the new year.
 
The Lions rise to 4-1 overall on the campaign, including a 3-1 mark in Ivy League meets. Cornell falls to 3-4, 1-4 Ivy.
 
"Any time you win, it's gotta be good," said Columbia head coach Jim Bolster after the meet. "This is always a meet that you sort of never know exactly how the kids are going to respond. We were just in Hawaii for 10 days, so there's some jetlag, some travel fatigue, so you're kind of on edge, but for the most part I thought they did really well. There were a couple of guys that were way off, and if we're going to have a chance at Brown on Saturday we're going to have to figure that out, but overall they did a good job."
 
Winning nine of the 16 events in the meet, the Lions had three individuals win multiple events while also taking top honors in both relay events.
 
First-year Ben Blizard was Columbia's highest finisher in both diving events, finishing second on both the opening 3-meter (333.45) and 1-meter (264.60).
 
"Ben was very consistent," said diving coach Scott Donie. "Casey [Fellows] and Shinya [Kondo] were solid on the 1-meter. We will need to be sharper all around against Brown this week. We will work on a few specific as we prepare ourselves for a quick turnaround."
 
Columbia got its first win of the meet in the 200 medley relay as Cole Stevens, Nian-Guo Liu, Jonas Kistorp and Gwo combined for a time of 1:30.55.
 
Sophomore Shawn Lou kept the winning going, picking up a victory in the 1,000 freestyle after touching the wall at 9:34.35. Sophomore David Wang was second in the event, going 9:39.38. Lou later earned his second victory of the meet, taking the 500 free after touching the wall in 4:38.25.
 
Just .01 seconds from matching his pool record in the event, Liu once again won the 200 freestyle, this time clocking a 1:36.96 to lead a 1-2 finish for Columbia ahead of first-year Thomas Shepanzyk (1:41.32). Liu went on to also win the 200 breaststroke at 2:00.14.
 
The Big Red had back-to-back wins in the 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke before first-year Ray Yang righted the ship with a triumph in the 200 butterfly at 1:49.16.
 
After posting his pool-record 19.71 in the 50 free, Gwo went on to win his second event of the day in the 100 free with a time of 44.58, leading a 1-2-3 finish for the Lions in front of Hayden Liu (45.99) and Kevin Dang (46.13).
 
Ending the meet on a high note, the Lions' squad of Nian-Guo Liu, Gwo, Dang and Eugene Li put together a time of 3:00.20 to win the 400 free relay.
 
Columbia will be back in action this Saturday, Jan. 18, heading to Providence, Rhode Island, to face the Brown Bears. The meet is slated to begin at noon ET.
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.