Major Programs to Test CU at Princeton

The Columbia men's swimming team will head to Princeton today for the Big Al Invitational, where it will face off against many of the top teams in the nation, including UVA, Tennessee, Brown, and Pittsburgh.

The Big Al Invitational, a three-day event, is a virtual rehearsal for the EISL Championship in late February. The meet will give the swimmers a chance to familiarize themselves with the rigorous championship schedule of preliminaries in the morning and finals at night in each event.

"It's our only chance to swim a full meet that's in the same format as the championship meet," senior Mike Nelson said. "So everyone will get to swim all of their events, as opposed to regular dual meets where we only get to swim a few. Most of swimming is five to six events. It will be somewhat of a challenge to get back at night, so we won't have to swim off events again."

The men will be able to score in four events, and each swimmer can swim up to eight events total. The goal for this invitational is to see how Columbia matches up against premier swimming programs like Tennessee and Virginia, which are ranked 14th and 15th in the nation.

"Most people are looking forward to it because it will be one of the toughest invitationals," Nelson explained. "The intensity of the meet will be a lot more than we are used to."

Though many of the teams will have tapered in preparation for this meet, Columbia has continued to train at a high level. Head coach Jim Bolster remains focused on the championships at the end of the season and will not break training for this invitational or any dual meets.

"Everyone is going for in-season best times all-around," senior captain Tobin White said. "It's a tune-up for championships."

After this meet, the team will get a small reprieve, with less rigorous practice schedules during finals. Their Ivy League season will start up again at home on Dec. 9 against Penn.