Swimming Loses to Harvard

Coming off of last week's loss to Yale, the Columbia men's swimming team had a chance to redeem themselves against Harvard on Friday. Although Columbia's team managed to defeat Harvard in last year's meet, the Lions were unable to repeat that success, falling to the Crimson 171-127 in Cambridge, Mass.

The Columbia standout in the meet was junior diver Justin Reardon, who finished first in both diving events. Senior Tobin White, who dominated the back-to-back sprint freestyle events, finished first in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 20.93 and first in the 100-meter freestyle in 45.42. Freshman Darren Pagan placed first in the 200-meter individual medley, and sophomore Kevin Wakefield won the 200-meter freestyle to complete Columbia's sweep in the sprint freestyle events.

Despite the outcome of the meet, White was pleased with the Lions' times.

"Harvard was a success," White said. "I know we didn't win, but I think we swam well. We were faster this year than we were last year."

One thing working against the Lions was a lack of swimmers for this dual meet. White said that the point difference between the Light Blue and Harvard would have been closer if the entire Columbia team was present.

"We were missing a few swimmers, and with them we would have tied or won," White explained.

Although Harvard pulled out the win on Friday, White said that this year's Crimson squad is not as strong as last year's and that he is confident that Columbia can compete with Harvard this season.

"They [Harvard] have a lot of good swimmers, but they don't seem as strong as years past," White said. "Our chances of beating them in the championships are good."

Today, the Lions will have their first home meet of the season. Columbia will face Fordham at 6 p.m. in what has become an annual meet between the two teams. Last year, the Light Blue beat the Rams 166-127, taking first place in nine of the 16 events. The Lions will look to the top scorers from last year's meet-seniors Jake Abbott, Michael Nelson, Christopher Scruton, and White-to lead them against Fordham.

Columbia will go into this non-conference meet with a different mind-set than they had against the Crimson. Individual swimmers will work on training in some of the events they would not normally compete in during an intense league meet.

"Fordham will be a low-key meet, and people will swim off events," White said. "It should be an easy meet to win, so we can focus on events that we normally wouldn't do."