By MOLLY KELLEHER
Spectator Staff Writer

At an emotional end-of-the-season meet, the Columbia seniors climbed out of Uris pool for the last time as competitors, after a small nine-point loss. The Navy Midshipmen (8-5) were able to edge out the Lions (5-6) 127-116.

For six Lions, this was the last regular season meet of their career. Seniors Todd Berget, Chris Ferris, Neal Karnovsky, Sharif Khaleel, and Steve McGrath, as well as junior Peter Leong, will be graduating this year. Head Coach Jim Bolster took several minutes to honor each graduate after the three-meter diving competition. The emotion and hard work of several years of dedication was visible in the faces of the athletes and in the cheers of their teammates.

The seniors have led this team through an exceptionally good year, filled with hard work and good performances. Despite its losing record, the team experienced much success this season. The seniors have inspired their teammates in and out of the pool.

"Sharif has been a personal inspiration for me due to his tremendous work ethic in the pool and his great attitude toward life out of it," sophomore Joe Zdrilic said of the co-captain.

On any college athletic team, inspiration is a necessary element. Endless hours of practice can be an unimaginable strain on one's life, both physically and mentally. Athletes need to look to someone to lead and inspire. Often this responsibility falls on the older athletes. This year's graduating class has done their duty.

"Especially for us freshmen," first-year Trevor Sagan said. "It was heartening to see how much the seniors are dedicated to this team and how much they will miss the camaraderie, coaching and spirit of the Lions swim team next year."

First-year KJ Klein echoed Sagan's sentiments.

"I think all of the freshmen will miss Todd ÔBig Daddy' Berget next year, for he served as a model senior, not only acting as a role model by training hard, but also doing his best to teach us about the social aspect of Columbia life," Klein said.

Sophomore Matt Schultz commented on the team and individual improvements from last year. He noted the huge improvements in the relay teams and in many individual times, attributing much of the success to the "much more cohesive team."

The final meet had a very exciting start. The Lion 400-yard medley relay of sophomore Matt Schultz, Khaleel, first-year Peter Armstrong, and junior Gered Doherty came from behind to give the Lions an early lead.

The next couple of events put the Midshipmen out in front. Throughout the meet, the scoring remained fairly close. The meet wasn't decided until the last couple of events, proving the Lions' solid performance. The 400-yard freestyle relay team of Zdrilic, Khaleel, Schultz, and Doherty solidly won the final event, but unfortunately the effort was not enough to win the close meet.

The Columbia divers had another successful performance, remaining undefeated in their portion of the regular season meets. On the one-meter board, sophomore Mark Fichera, junior Daniel Brown, and first-year Stu Machir placed first, second, and third, respectively, in front of all of Navy's divers. On the three-meter board, Navy fared better than on the one-meter, but not enough to keep the Lions down. Fichera, Brown and Machir earned first, third, and fifth places.

"I can't believe we beat every team in the league," Brown said, expressing his happiness. "We have been diving better than ever lately and all of us are adding new dives and refining our old ones. This has been an exciting and extremely successful dual meet season and I couldn't have imagined it any better."

It's safe to say that at the end of this perfect season, the divers will continue to be solid at Easterns, Mar. 4-6.

In summing up the season, Doherty was most thankful for his teammates.

"We have great team chemistry'n something which was lacking in past teams, we have fun together and at the meets, and as long as everybody is swimming their hardest every meet, we can't really ask for more," Doherty said.