On Jan. 23, men’s and women’s swim and dive traveled to Percy Uris Natatorium in New York City to contest the ‘Empire State Duel’ against Columbia University.
Men’s head swim coach Wes Neman ’09 indicated that, this year, the rivalry could be felt before the duel.
“There was a great intensity leading up to the meet,” Newman said. “We talked about it being a good, close meet.”
Unfortunately, the men’s expectations would not be met as they were beaten by the Lions, 203-97, their largest loss to the team in 14 years. The Lions won every event except for the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard backstroke, with junior Haihan Xu and senior Pietro Ubertalli earning gold medals in their respective events.
The women’s team, by contrast, dominated the Lions, winning 197-103 and claiming gold medals in 13 out of 16 events. This victory was the women’s first conference win since November 2023, a 191-109 throttling of the University of Pennsylvania and the win was also their first triumph over Columbia since 2018.
Several women won gold in multiple events. Junior Hojung Yoon won the 200-yard freestyle, the 200-yard backstroke, the 200-yard intermediate medley and was part of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay. Fellow junior Erin DeHollander won both the 1000 and 500 yard freestyle. Katie Yee, a junior, won the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard butterfly.
Diving standouts included freshman Lilla Kuzmienko and sophomore Julia Wilkinson, who placed first and second in three-meter diving.
When asked about the men’s wide margin of defeat, Newman ascribed it to their consistent inability to win close races.
“Across the board, [Columbia swimmers swam] 1% faster than their entry times,” Newman said. “We were maybe half a percent slower than our entry times… [Columbia] was getting all of the close [finishes] and you can’t win a meet unless you’re getting those [finishes].”
Even though the day ended in disappointment, there were still some positive moments for the men. Newman first praised sophomore Emmanuel Gadson for a great effort.
“Gadson had a great 200-yard breaststroke,” Newman said. “He nearly [swam] a lifetime best. He was right behind Xu, which was good to see.”
Newman hailed junior Blake Conway and sophomore Gabe Anagnoson for a brilliant performance that ultimately fell short.
“Conway and Anagnoson were right behind [Columbia senior Isaac Beers], who set the pool record [with] the fastest 100-yard backstroke ever swum in Columbia’s pool,” Newman said. “They both had exceptional swims, it’s just [they were against] the fastest person to ever swim in that pool.”
When asked what he told his team following the end of the Columbia duel, Newman answered that improvement was necessary on all fronts to achieve a successful result against their next opponent, Brown University.
“I said to them, ‘how can we improve our performance so that we don’t fall flat next week against Brown,’” Newman said. “Part of that’s on us too, as coaches. We got to look at, how are we going to prepare differently? What do we need to do differently?”
Despite this, Newman still believes that good results can be achieved in future meets.
“I know that the team has more in the tank in our upcoming meets,” Newman said.
The next meet for the Red will be 2 p.m. this Friday against Brown in Teagle Pool.
