Brown Tops Columbia in First Ivy Road Contest

Saturday, January 18

Providence, R.I.

Noon

Columbia

114

186

Brown

Photo by: Mike McLaughlin

1/18/2020 3:54:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Results (PDF)

The Columbia men's swimming and diving team fell at Brown, 186-114, on Saturday afternoon

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Senior Nian-Guo Liu led the Lions with a trio of individual wins, but it wasn't enough as Columbia men's swimming and diving dropped a 186-114 decision to Brown on Saturday afternoon at the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center.

With the loss, Columbia moves to 4-2 overall with a 3-2 mark in Ivy League meets, while the Bears improve to 3-4, 2-4 Ivy.

"Tough day, but it's not something that I didn't anticipate," said head coach Jim Bolster. "I didn't necessarily think we were going to lose, but I knew that Brown was going to give us a lot of trouble and that we were really going to have to be on and we weren't and they were. It was their senior day, and their seniors had never beaten us and I think they were pretty fired up to do that.

"There were some close races early on that didn't go our way and it just steam rolled from there. I wasn't disappointed with the way we swam, but we just didn't have enough depth. Brown is a very good team, they were really ready for us today. We don't have a meet next week so I think we'll have a chance to recover and gear up for the start of the second semester. There's always a time in the season where there's a low point, and it's how you respond that really matters."

The opening 200-yard medley relay was extremely tight with the Bears earning a narrow victory at 1:28.91 ahead of Columbia's 1:28.99, and Brown would open the meet with back-to-back wins before Liu won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:35.88.

The 100 backstroke would prove to be another extremely tight race, but senior Cole Stevens (49.30) would be edged out by Brown Joon Sung (49.10) for the win.

Junior Albert Gwo registered his fourth win of the season in the 50 free, posting a time of 19.92. Gwo went on to place second in the 100 free, clocking in at 44.46 behind Brown's Cody Cline at 44.35.

First-year diver Ben Blizard was Columbia's top finisher on both springboard events, placing second on 3-meter (327.68) and third on 1-meter (279.53). Senior Shinya Kondo took fourth on both boards.

"Shinya Kondo and Ben Blizard were very consistent today and Ben's 3-meter showing was one of his best performances this season, earning him an NCAA Zone qualifying score," said diving coach Scott Donie. "Overall a great day."

Junior Baptiste Leger earned a runner-up finish in the 200 back (1:49.55), before Liu earned his second win of the day in the 200 breast with a time of 2:00.46.

The next race saw sophomore Jonas Kistorp go 49.85 in the 100 butterfly to finish second in the event, and Liu wrapped up the inidivdual events with a winning 1:48.92 in the 200 IM.

Columbia will have nearly two weeks until its next dual, traveling to face Navy on Friday, Jan. 31 at 2 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.