It?s not often that the team who places sixth out of 10 pulls down the lion?s share of the post-meet awards.

That is what happened, however, when the men?s swimming and diving squad traveled to Princeton on Thursday for this weekend?s Eastern Swimming Championships.

The Light Blue coaching staff picked up two awards, as Jim Bolster was named Swimming Coach of the Year and Gordon Spencer the Diving Coach of the Year.

Senior co-captain Gered Doherty received one of the three Moriarty Awards for meet high point swimmers. Junior Mark Fichera got the meet high point diver Michael Award.

Harvard once again took the top team score for the fifth straight year, this time with 1468 points. The Crimson was followed by Princeton, Yale, Navy, Brown, Cornell, and Army. Penn and Dartmouth, finished behind Columbia, which scored 769 points.

The meet started off with the Lions in decent shape, taking fourth in the 200-yard relay with Doherty, junior Matt Schultz, sophomore Colin Shannahan, and senior Russell Perkins. First-year Arpad Sebe took the sixth spot in the third event of the day, the 200 IM. The next sprint was the 50 freestyle, and Doherty took first with a time of 20:11 seconds. He had sprinted this same event 19.95 in the preliminaries, setting a school record.

The divers kept up the momentum, junior Mark Fichera placing first in the one meter event with 521 points and senior co-captain Daniel Brown taking third at 462.

?With our performances, with Gordon receiving the Diving Coach of the Year award, and with Mark receiving the High Point Diver award, we proved this weekend to be the most dominant diving team in the league. This weekend was the ultimate way to end my career in league competition," Brown said.

Columbia closed out the first day with a win by the 400 medley relay team. The usual foursome of Schultz, Sebe, Doherty, and Perkins finished in 3:17.74, breaking yet another school record.

?No one other than us expected our relay to do well, or even win,? Doherty said, ?and when we did you could tell for the place went silent!?

Columbia ended Thursday in fifth place.

Friday didn?t prove quite as promising as the day before. Third place was taken in the 200 relay medley by the same quartet that had won the 400 medley the night before. Doherty took second in the 100 butterfly at 48.01.

The only first place win of the day went to Schultz in the 100 backstroke at 48.79. The 800 relay gave Columbia a fourth place by Perkins, sophomore Peter Armstrong, Sebe, and Shannahan. The other events of the day had impressive placings by Columbia as well, but these few broke the top five. The team stood at sixth and was to remain there for the final score.

It wasn?t until the third event on Saturday that Columbia truly made its presence truly known. Doherty nabbed the 100 free in 44.02, placing first and setting a meet record, breaking Novak?s, a swimmer for Army in 1998 with 44.13.

Sebe took second in the next sprint, the 200 breaststroke at 2:03.06. Fichera won the three meter diving event with 542 points, with Brown taking sixth with 473 and first-year Josh Juffe claiming 20th.

The final event of the weekend was the 400 relay free, in which Columbia took sixth with Doherty, Shannahan, Schultz, and Perkins.

Harvard managed to claim the meet, with three first places and four seconds, and also churned out a NCAA qualifying time in the 200 medley. Crimson senior Tim Martin posted an Olympic Trial time of 4:24.52 in the 500 freestyle.

The other schools proved their abilities as well, setting impressive times and pushing Columbia down to sixth. But the Light Blue certainly made enough wins to call attention to itself, walking away with a good standing and several awards to end the weekend.

?Personal accomplishments were great and a lot of fun to watch, but I think everyone at that meet knows our 400 medley was the best swim of the meet,? Doherty said. ?It was a great race and one of the biggest upsets I?m aware of in Columbia Swimming history and I?m glad I was a part of it.?