EAST MEADOW, N.Y. – The Columbia women's swimming and diving team traveled upstate to take part in the ECAC Winter Championships this weekend. For the third consecutive year, the Lions came in first place in the competition, scoring 1876 points and beating out second place Stony Brook by over 650 points.
"So many exciting performances," Head Coach Diana Caskey said. "The Columbia women continued to pick up steam as the meet went on. It was a great way to finish up competition before the end of the semester and exams!"
Caskey along with the rest of Columbia's coaching staff, was named the 2023 Women's Coach of the Meet.
Results from the entire event can be found HERE, but a summary of each day can be found below.
DAY ONE
Columbia kicked things off with a victory in the 200-free relay, as the team of Emily MacDonald, Sally Ma, Georgia Young, and Aniston Eyre clocked in with a time of 1:32.15 to win gold.
Aziza Ganihanova kept things going in the next event, winning the 500-free with a time of 4:49.77.
Georgia Young continued the streak in the third event, taking first in the 200-IM with a time of 2:02.51.
Emily MacDonald closed out the individual events with a win in the 50-free, clocking in with a time of 22.92.
The Lions earned a clean sweep of day one, closing out the day with a program-record breaking win in the 400-medley relay, as the team of Ganihanova, Ashley Hu, Anthea Wong, and MacDonald touched the wall with a time of 3:41.96.
DAY TWO
The Lions picked up where they left off on the first day, with a win in the first event of day two. Columbia won the 200-medley relay, as the team of Emily Wang, Georgia Young, Anthea Wong, and Emily MacDonald clocked in with a time of 1:42.94.
Aziza Ganihanova won her second event of the weekend, taking first in the 400-IM with a time of 4:20.02.
Ashley Hu kept rolling, winning the 100-breast with a time of 1:01.84.
Emily Wang took first place in the 100-back, touching the wall with a time of 55.65.
Columbia finished up day two with another win, taking first in the 800-free relay with a time of 7:24.86.
DAY THREE
The Lions continued to dominate on day three, and Meredith Stewart kept rolling by winning the 1650-free in the first event of the night. She touched the wall with a time of 16:52.46 to win gold.
Aziza Ganihanova won her third event of the weekend, closing out a dominant meet with a win in the 200-back with a time of 1:57.26.
Emily MacDonald followed that up by winning her third individual event of the weekend as well, taking first in the 100-free with a time of 49.87.
In the next event, Ashley Hu won the 200-breast with a time of 2:14.49.
Allison Martin won the final individual event of the weekend, taking the 200-fly with a time of 2:03.57.
Columbia closed things out in style, winning the final event of the weekend which was the 400-free relay. The squad of Emily Wang, MacDonald, Hutton Saunders, and Aniston Eyre touched the wall with a time of 3:23.33.
DIVING
Meanwhile, the women's divers have been competing at the Big Al Invitational hosted by Princeton University in New Jersey this weekend.
Alice Diakova (294.75) and Macy Pine (276.15) had a solid start to the competition, placing first and third, respectively, in the B finals of the 3m competition in a field of 41 divers.
On day two, Macy Pine took second in the B finals of the 1m dive with a score 253.50.
On the final day of the meet on Sunday, Prine had a crucial zone qualifying score in the platform dive, putting up a score of 236.95. With this being the only platform diving event on the Lions schedule this season, it was Pine's only chance to qualify for zones, and she delivered.
ON DECK
The Lions will have over a month off for the holidays, before returning to action on Saturday, January 13 against Brown in Rhode Island. The meet is scheduled to begin at noon.
For the latest on the Columbia women's swimming and diving program, follow @CULionsWSD and @CULionsDiving on Instagram and Twitter, and on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.
