It was a long weekend for mens swimming and diving as it fought three formidable foes: Harvard, Army, and the University of Massachusetts.

At the Army-Harvard Double Dual Meet, Harvard beat the Lions 152-91, and Army barely came out on top at 123 to the Blue's 120 but lost to Harvard 177-66.

Columbia grabbed the first place in the 400 yard relay-medley, the 100 yard free, and both the one meter and three meter diving events, but it still wasn't enough to defeat Army.

The 400-yard was won by the foursome of junior Matt Schultz, first-year Arpad Sebe, senior captain Gered Doherty, and senior Russell Perkins in a time of 3:25.50. Doherty nabbed the 100 yard free with 45.68 seconds. Senior and captain Daniel Brown took first place for the one-meter men's diving with a score of 274.50, while junior Mark Fichera claimed the top spot for the three-meter dive with 307.35 points.

Even though many of the swimmers were disappointed, Columbia Head Coach Jim Bolster still commended them. "The meet was very exciting and the kids swam well," Bolster said.

The meets result was taken in stride, and is far from the final word on the season. The teams standing ultimately will be decided at the Ivy Championship, where it will face Army once again. The swimmers are ready for a rematch against the Cadets.

"Revenge is sweet," senior Captain P.J. Freuler said.

"We all had great swims, we just couldnt pull it together for the last relay," Freuler added.

The meet at UMass ended on a much more pleasant note with Columbia beating its host 173 to 137 on Sunday. The team now has two wins and only one loss against UMass. This victory was much to the dismay of an over-enthusiastic Amherst crowd, which spent the majority of the meet screaming "You own these guys!" to their swimmers.

"It was hard to lose by just three to Army, but Im glad we were able to bounce back at UMass," Sebe said.

The meet went back and forth, with Doherty leading teammates Perkins and Schultz into the three top spots of the 100 yard free. UMass came back and tied the score at 113 before Doherty, and sophomores Peter Armstrong and Matt ODonnell claimed the first, second, and fourth places respectively in the 100 yard fly, putting the Lions ahead once again.

Diver Mark Fichera came in first on the three-meter at 324.66, breaking the pool record, followed by Brown in third place and first-year Josh Juffe in fifth.

The meet was clinched when Sebe won the 200 yard individual medley in 1:57.05, widening the small gap between the two teams and pushing Columbia to the lead. The Lions sealed their victory by capturing the 400 yard free relay.

"All in all, it was definitely a character-builder for the team capturing our first win and doing it in such circumstances as the archaic UMass pool," Doherty said.

On Dec 4, the team goes to Cornell, which apparently is taking Columbia very seriously, shaving and resting up to face the Lions. However, Columbias swimmers and divers seem to be unconcerned in their preperations for their trip to Ithaca.

"Cornells pool and UMasss pool are alike, as are the teams, so I expect a similar situation to unfoldwith us emerging victorious, of course," said Doherty.