The Columbia women’s swimming and diving team will be looking to extend their winning streak to seven this weekend against league rival Brown. The Lions have been able to fly by the competition in the pool with strong performances and tough training but last the Bears were one of Columbia’s closes matchups.
In one of the Bears most recent meets against Penn, despite losing, they had several impressive swims including one from freshman Natascha Mangan, who swam a 2:08.52 in the 200-yard butterfly. That was good enough to take first place.
The Lions however have several weapons of their own in the butterfly stroke. In this past weekend’s meet sophomore Allison Hobbs placed in a race that she usually does not swim, the 200-yard butterfly. Hobbs had not participated in this event since the Connecticut Senior Open Championship meet. The result at the end of the meet against Cornell was the best time by a significant margin. That swim makes Hobbs a weapon in another butterfly event. If Mangan and Hobbs, or any other butterfly swimmers for the Lions, face off this weekend it should be a fantastic race.
In addition to the 200-yard butterfly the Bears were able to pick up a victory in the 200-yard breaststroke in their match against the Quakers. Bailey Langner, a sophomore from Brown, was able to win the race with a time of 2:27.08. However, the Breaststroke is one of Columbia’s strongest strokes. The Lions have three swimmers who have been able to best Langner’s time by a significant margin this season.
The top time currently belongs to freshman Mariele Dunn who swam the event in a time of 2:19.66 at Columbia’s meet versus Penn. Senior co-captain Amy Krakuer has the second best time just slightly slower than Dunn’s. At the big Al invite Krakuer finished the race with a time of 2:20.13. Krakuer this season has been constantly swimming faster and should be able to beat her own season best.
At the Big Al Invite freshman Amanda Stewart went a 2:25.65, which is still several seconds faster than Langner’s winning time. The Lions have not only been getting great swims from their team but the Lion divers have been able to come up with essential victories.
This season the Lions divers Joanna Corby and Shannon Hosey have been successful at placing at the top of every meet they compete in. This should prove to be another essential aspect of the team’s strides towards victory this coming weekend.
As much as competitive sports are about actual performance in the meet it is also about keeping up your current frame of mind. “We need to stay at the level we have been competing at in our last two meets and get to the wall first in the close races,” head coach Diana Caskey said. “This is a tough time of year from a competition standpoint as we are ready to start tapering/resting but can’t do so yet, so we have to be tough physically and mentally.”
Although Caskey recognizes the challenges that lay ahead of her and her team she thinks that they can come out victorious. Caskey left this parting outlook on the Brown meet, “This group is definitely capable of staying on task and getting the job done,” said Caskey, “We want to keep our winning streak alive and have our best dual meet record ever.”
Columbia faces off against league rival Brown this Saturday in Uris Pool at noon.
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