Illness and fatigue troubled the Lions in Hanover, N.H. last Saturday. Despite any slow performances, the Lions were able to beat Dartmouth soundly, 181-112. The Lions did not expect to be at their peak performance due to their recent return from their winter training trip. But after six weeks, the athletes welcomed their return to competition.
"The meet went well, I really can't complain. We won and that was all that was all that we were after," sophomore Matt Schultz said.
"We knew going into the meet that unless we screwed up really bad, we were going to win." junior Gered Doherty said.
"Our team wasn't really healthy and we were missing a couple swimmers, but we came out strong from the beginning and kept outscoring them in most of the events. We didn't want a repeat of the Fordham meet. That could have been disastrous," Doherty added. At the Fordham meet, Columbia swam weakly and did not meet their swimming potential, only narrowly beating Fordham. But last weekend, the Lions were able to earn a solid win.
"Most of us were sick or recovering from our Christmas training, so most of us swam slowish. It was fortunate that Dartmouth was a non-competitor. If we had swam someone else then we would have lost terribly. As it is though, we won and that helps out team moral a lot," Schultz said.
The Lions made a strong showing with their diving at the meet. Only two of the Lions were able to compete since first-year Stu Machir was out for the meet with a shoulder injury. But both junior Daniel Brown and sophomore Mark Fichera dove well. The meet was an important one for the Lions because they were diving against Dartmouth's Toby Hays, last year's Easterns champion on the three meter and second place winner on the one meter.
The Lions edged out Hays, earning both first and second place on the three-meter board. But Hays was able to win the one-meter board. "I think Mark and I worked really well under pressure in this meet and dove extremely consistently," Brown said. "Mark and I didn't miss any dives horrendously and we put all of our dives on our heads."
The Lions have competed consistently all season, and last Saturday's meet was no exception. Both the competitors and the unfamiliar surroundings proved to be a challenge, but the divers were able to dive well.
"One of the greatest challenges in diving is competing at a different pool. There are definite home pool advantages for divers because boards vary from pool to pool," Fichera said.
The divers were very happy with their performance and they hope to continue their strong performances through the rest of the season. In two weeks the Lions will host Penn at home. For many of the swimmers, this will be an exciting meet, because of the deep-seeded rivalry between Columbia and Penn. "[The] Penn [meet] is in two weeks and you can bet your ass we are going to be fired up for those guys," Doherty said. "There has been a huge, ancient rivalry between us, yet no one knows where it originated. We just want to beat Penn. The senior class this year has never beat Penn and I know they are dying to do so. It should be a good meet."