Powell outswims competition in Ivy Championships

For three days, the men’s swimming and diving team duked it out with the rest of the Ancient Eight, at the Ivy League Championships. Though the Lions may not have taken the top spot, they did manage to rise above their fifth place finish in the standings from the regular season, to take third in the league.

Princeton and Harvard have finished first and second in the championships for the last 38 years, and this year was no exception. It’s almost as if there is a secondary competition between the remaining six teams. As head coach Jim Bolster says, “If you get third, it’s almost like you’ve won the meet.”

“The Ivy Championships is our focus and we make sure that is the meet that we try to peak for emotionally, psychologically, physically,” Coach Bolster said. “This is when we’ve really got to put it all together. And they did just that, that’s for sure.”

Right from the start the men began to supersede expectations. Thursday evening, in the first final of the weekend, the Light Blue relay team seeded fifth, jumped ahead to finish in second place. Junior Adam Powell, seniors Darren Pagan and Jordan Kobb, and freshman Patrick Dougherty combined to post the 1:21.55 effort that was second only to Princeton.

Pagan hit the deck a second time Thursday night, this time tackling the 200 individual medley. Pagan’s time of 1:48.11 placed him fourth behind two Tigers and a Penn swimmer.

Junior Adam Powell topped the charts for the Lions and won the 50 freestyle in 19.72 seconds—the 18th fastest time in the nation, and a time that makes the NCAA “B” cut. Powell faced tough competition, with five Princeton swimmers in the top heat alone, but at the end of the day Columbia stood atop the podium.
Coach Bolster said, “At the moment, being 18th, he has a pretty good shot of being invited [to the NCAA championship meet].”

Columbia’s trio of divers also competed on the first night. Freshman Jason Collazo took the top prize for the Lions with his fourth place finish, while fellow freshman Michaelangelo Borghi, and junior David Levkoff took 12th and 20th respectively.

The 400 medley relay team comprised of Johnny Bailey, Eric Tang, Bruno Esquen, and Powell finished second in 3:18.01 to close out the first day of competition with the Lions seeded fifth.

Coach Bolster recalls, “After the 1650 on Friday night we were down by 154 points. Penn was in third and we were actually in fifth. I can’t say I was saying to myself or the team: ‘Hey look, third place is still within our grasp.'”

But the same relay crew opened up the finals on Friday night in the 200 medley, adding another set of second place points to Columbia’s total with a time of 1:29.81. The time not only makes the NCAA “B” cut but is also a new school record, and will earn each of the men second-team All-Ivy honors.

Freshman Sean MacKenzie raked in another 24 points for the Lions with a 15:55.43 finish in the 1650 freestyle, that was good enough for sixth place. Also in the event was sophomore Alex Smith nearby in ninth in 16:30.21. With the conclusion of the 1650 free, Columbia overtook Cornell in the points tally and slid into fourth place.
The Lions were well represented in the 400 individual medley finals thanks to senior Ross Ramone, and sophomores Robert Eyckmans, and Chester Dols. Ramone finished ninth in 4:00.53, with Eyckmans close behind at 4:00.68 in 11th, and Dols in 13th in 4:01.49.

The A-final of the 100 butterfly was home to Esquen and Pagan, who finished fourth and eighth in 48.74 and 48.98 respectively. Tang, Erik Mai, and Ramone handled the 100 breaststroke as Tang took sixth in 56.19 seconds. Mai led the B-final with a ninth place finish in 56.54, with Ramone close behind in 12th in 57.07.
Powell hit the pool again, this time taking third with a 49.11 finish in the 100 backstroke. Also in the final were Bailey and Dougherty, who took sixth and eighth respectively.

Pagan, Mitchell Phillips, Mackenzie, and Dougherty worked together to complete the 800 freestyle relay in 6:45.06 at the end of the second day.

The third day began with the Lions still in fourth place behind Princeton, Harvard, and Penn. In the 1000 freestyle, the usual trio of distance swimmers teamed up to represent the Light Blue. Smith took twelfth in 9:25.01, MacKenzie finished thirteenth in 9:25.49, and Dols ended in fifteenth in 9:30.71.

Pagan put points on the board once again for Columbia with his fifth place finish in the 200 backstroke in 1:48.19.

Winning his second league title of the weekend, Powell took first in the 100 freestyle in 43.92, his second swim within the NCAA “B” cut standards. Powell claimed the first spot ahead of a string of five straight Princeton swimmers.

Seniors Ramone and Tang nearly tied at the wall, finishing in sixth and seventh place at 2:02.23 and 2:02.34 respectively in the 200 breaststroke. With the points pouring in as a result of this event, the Lions picked off yet another opponent, and slid into third with just three events to go.

After Esquen took ninth in the 200 fly, and Levkoff grabbed 11th in the 1-meter dive, the Ancient Eight headed into the final event of the championships—the 400 freestyle relay. Pagan, Dougherty, Phillips and Powell improved greatly upon the Light Blue’s sixth place seed to take third in 3:00.52.

The Lions were able to hold onto their position and end the meet in third place with 996.5 points but Penn was close behind at 959.5.

“The Penn kids swam well so it wasn’t like they handed it to us. But our guys just kept stepping up one race after the other and we sort of clawed our way back one race at a time,” coach Bolster said.

Of the team, Bolster noted “they were wonderful, phenomenal all weekend. They paid attention to the task at hand, they didn’t get discouraged, they didn’t get intimidated, they just came out each day and just set a tone that ‘We’re here, the boys from New York City’ as they like to say and ‘we’re ready, we’re going to show you what we got.’”