On Saturday, the Columbia men's swimming and diving team defeated Penn 177-123 at home in Uris Pool. While the score remained close during the beginning of the meet, consecutive Lion wins in the final portion of the competition helped them to pull ahead and solidify their defeat of the Quakers.
The Penn team had performed impressively the weekend before at the Princeton Invitational. With this in mind, the team and coach Jim Bolster knew that the lineup and the swimmers had to execute perfectly to take this worthy opponent.
A key point in the meet was the breaststroke event in which the Lions' Zach Glassman, Ross Ramone, and Michael Nelson took first, second, and third in the 200. Glassman missed the pool record by only .11 seconds. The powerhouse breaststrokers also took first and second in the 100, with senior Nelson leading the pack.
There were other top finishes with Cedric Cheung-Lau in the 200 fly, Tobin White in the 200 and 50 freestyle, and freshmen Darren Pagan in the 200-yard individual medley, and Luke Fitzpatrick in the 100 backstroke.
"Tobin was a standout during this meet," freshman Nick Barron said. "He won two of his three races and got second in the other to one of Penn's best swimmers."
Columbia's strong first place finishes concluding with the final 400-yard free relay, combined with powerful diving performances by junior Justin Reardon, who won both of his events, ensured the Lion win.
The team morale was very high during this meet as the intensity of the competition required united support.
"Most of the team was up and cheering during the races and watching our teammates pull through and swim fast," Barron said. "That really fueled us to swim fast as well."
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