Women's Swimming Fails to Make Waves

This Columbia women’s swim team held its own but could not take down the top teams at this weekend’s Big Al Invitational held at Princeton University, finishing sixth out of 11 teams in the three-day meet. As with the men’s side, Penn State took the top spot overall, while Princeton was the top Ivy competitor. Although they did not finish at the top, the Lions left Princeton with valuable knowledge and experience.

The Lions traveled with a fair amount of freshman to the invitational in an effort to give the squad’s newest swimmers some extra experience for future Ivy competition.
Freshman Abby Reilly took 11th in the 1,650-yard freestyle, just ahead of junior teammate Megan Brown. Fellow freshman Mariele Dunn took seventh-place in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2: 20.77, with Amanda Stewart taking 20th place with a time of 2:25.65.

The top finish came courtesy of junior Hannah Galey, who grabbed fourth place in the 100-yard freestyle, just one second behind overall winner Kelly Harrigan of Rutgers and only 0.26 seconds behind third-place finisher Stacie Safritt of Pitt. Sophomore Delghir Urubshurow took sixth place in the 200-yard backstroke.

On the relay side, the Lions took seventh place in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a team of Dunn, Urubshurow, Galey, and senior Amy Krakauer in a time of 3: 38.19, just under three seconds behind Rutgers. The B-team of junior Lauren Fraley, freshman Ashley MacLean, Stewart, and freshman Erica Dorfman came in 15th.

Penn State dominated the action over the weekend, registering an impressive 990 points, over 400 points clear of second-place Princeton. Columbia did beat out Brown, with the Lions tallying 266 points to the Bears’ 173. Harvard finished further back with 80 points.

The Lions are back in action this coming Friday against Penn and on Saturday against Wagner.