Women's Swimming

The Columbia women’s swimming and diving team’s season will come to an end this weekend following its biggest meet of the season. The Lions will travel to Princeton to take on the rest of the members of the Ancient Eight. In the dual-meet season, the Lions swam the best they ever had. Columbia ended its dual meet season with an impressive overall record of 9-2 and went 5-2 in the Ivy League.

There have been many positives this season for the Lions. However, the biggest advantage the team holds is the fact that so many of the girls can swim multiple events and swim them well. The evidence for this lies in the season’s results. When looking at the the team’s divers, juniors Shannon Hosey and Joanna Corby have been remarkable.

Last year at Ivies, Hosey finished 11th in one-meter diving and 10th in three-meter diving. Corby finished 17th in the one-meter event and in the three-meter. This season, in all of Hosey and Corby’s events, they consistently finished near the top. Additionally, both Corby and Hosey have qualified for the Diving Zones. These two divers could give the Lions points that would move them up in standing.

The team has also broken many records this season. Hopefully Columbia will be able to take the momentum from two great swims during the last meet of the season into this weekend. One record-breaker was junior Hannah Galey, who beat the pool and varsity record this year in the 100-yard freestyle. Last year at Ivies, Galey swam a 51.89 in the finals of the 100-yard freestyle. To take possession of both records, Galey swam a 50.19. This is more than a second faster than Ivies and is only .02 seconds slower than the winning time from Ivies last year by Princeton swimmer Justina DiFazio. In addition, sophomore Allison Hobbs was able to beat the Uris Pool record in the 100-yard butterfly. Against Dartmouth, Hobbs swam a time of 56.69, which beats her time from Ivies last year by three seconds. If Hobbs had been able to swim that time last year, she would have placed in the top eight at Ivies and moved the Lions up in the rankings. Light Blue fans should expect to see some great swims from both Hobbs and Galey going forward.

The success of the Lions cannot be thrown onto several swimmers, but rather the whole team. Columbia appears to be one of the deepest squads in all of the Ivy League. When looking at the butterfly event the Lions have Hobbs, senior co-captain Lisa Rohrs, and sophomore Tina Hughes. Rohrs has been consistently getting stronger throughout the season and will be looking to make her last college meet impressive.

The Light Blue is also seeing impressive leadership from both upper and lowerclassmen. Senior co-captain Amy Krakauer has been one of the driving forces all year taking the Lions to new levels. Since joining the team her freshman year she has given the Lions quality swims. However, the Lions have been getting impressive results from freshman swimmer Mariele Dunn. At the beginning of the season, Dunn came out strong and has not looked back since. Perhaps one of the Light Blue’s strongest group of swimmers is its distance swimmers. Last year Lauren Morford appeared to be the heart of Columbia’s distance. But this season, junior Megan Brown has been able to consistently perform and win races. Brown is just one member of the distance specialist duo. The other impressive Lion is freshman Abby Reilly. From her first distance swim, it was evident that she was going to help the Lions throughout the year.

Last season the Lions placed fifth at Ivies, but fans should not expect to see the Lions that low in the standings this year. Rather, Light Blue fans should anticipate their team to be among the top three.

Columbia kicks off Ivies this morning in the first round of preliminary heats at DeNunzio Pool in Princeton, N.J.