NEW YORK -- The Columbia women's swim and dive team defeated the visiting Quakers of Penn 158-142 in a season-opening dual-meet decided by its final event.
With just the 200 freestyle relay left to swim, Columbia held a ten point lead over Penn (148-138) as 17 points remained to be claimed. Either team could earn the win behind a pair of finishes in the top three.
Rookie
Emily MacDonald led off the race for Columbia's "A" Team collecting the fastest start off the blocks of the heat (23.88). Junior
Isabelle Arevalo and sophomore
Ana Eyre sped through the second and third legs, respectively (23.77, 23.92) before passing the torch to junior
Tina Le. The race ended in a photo finish as Le swam a team-best 23.22 final leg to claim victory for Columbia just one fifth of a second ahead of Penn (1:34.79, 1:34.84).
Anthea Wong,
Georgia Young,
Emily Wang, and
Allison Martin contributed another four points with a third place finish in 1:36.20.
A trio of Lions produced points in the double digits via solo events. Sophomore
Allegra Walker paced team with 18 points in her Columbia apperance, winning both the 100 breast (1:04.51) and 200 breast (2:19.34) while also contributing to a second place finish with the 200 medley team.
Classmate
Aziza Ganihanova made a splash in her first collegiate meet, recording 16 points with a victory in the 200 back (2:00.31), a second place finish in the 1,000 free (10:09.61), and a third place 200 IM swim (2:06.67). First-year MacDonald placed first in the 50 (23.77) and third in the 100 free (52.45) for 12 individual points on the nights. In addition to leading off the free relay, MacDonald anchored the 200 medley relay with a split time of 23.35.
Sophomore
Alice Diakova proved herself to be the diver to beat, winning off both the one (279.30) and three meter boards (291.90).
Briget Rosendahl claimed second off the one meter (268.43) and third off the three (261.90) behind teammate
Macy Pine (274.50).
"We had really strong performances from all of the divers tonight," noted head diving coach
Scott Donie. "We have real reason to celebrate and this group is just getting started."
Diakova recorded NCAA Zone qualifying scores in both events while Rosendahl did so in the one meter.
Columbia will return to action on Saturday, hosting Ivy League rival Harvard at noon.
