#22 Columbia vs. HM Princeton
- November 11, 2022
- SCY (25 yards)
- Percey Uris Natatorium, New York, New York
- Full Results Under “Princeton at Columbia Men” on MeetMobile
On Friday, the Columbia men’s team pulled off an upset against Princeton, beating them by a narrow margin of 155-145 at home. This was just Columbia’s second dual meet win against Princeton in over forty years, as the last two times Columbia defeated Princeton in a dual meet were in the 2019-2020 and 1979-1980 seasons. While Columbia scored more points than Princeton at NCAAs last year, their victory on Friday can be called an upset considering that Princeton has consistently been the better school in Ivy League competition, having outscored Columbia by 573 points at the 2022 Ivy League Championships. In addition, Princeton had come into the NCAA season with much more momentum than Columbia, having the #16-ranked freshman class in the NCAA.
Canadian freshman Adam Wu, who was swimming in his first-ever yards meet, was a major contributor toward the Lions’ victory. He went three for three in his individual events and scored 27 points, winning the 200 free, 200 fly, and 500 free. He swam a 1:37.23 in the 200 free, a 1:46.84 in the 200 fly, and a 4:28.37 in the 500 free, and his 200 fly time took down the Percey Uris Natatorium pool record in the event. His flat start 200 free time was also faster than two of the splits on Columbia’s 800 free relay at Ivies last year (Kyle Won‘s 1:39.78 and Stanford Li‘s 1:38.06), so he’s making the decision to put him on that relay a no-brainer this early on in the season.
Friday’s meet was Wu’s first competition since the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, where he dropped from a best time of 1:51.12 to a 1:48.26 in the 200 free to earn bronze. His long course 200 free time converts to a 1:34.01 in yards, which is faster than Columbia’s 200 free team record. He comes into this season with the potential to make huge impact on his team, and his performances against Princeton certainly lived up to expectations.
Another Columbia freshman, Brian Lee, also made some noise at this meet. He was dominant in the 100 fly, swimming a time of 47.73 which was less than a second off his personal best time of 46.81. In fact, the 100 fly was one of Columbia’s strongest events, as Seung Joon Ahn (49.05) and Ray Yang (49.26) finished second and third behind Lee to make the event a podium sweep for the Lions.
Columbia’s two NCAA qualifiers from last year, Jonathan Suckow and Demirkan Demir, also took two wins apiece. Suckow, a 2022 first-team All-American, won the three-meter diving event with a score of 442.88 points and the one-meter with a score of 419.40 points. Demir won his signature events, the 100 and 200 breast, with times of 54.28 and 1:58.36 respectively. Both of his swims were season-bests, beating out the 54.96 and 2:01.99 times he swam at Columbia’s season-opener meet last week against Penn.
Major points were earned by Columbia in the 200 medley relay, as Andy Huang (23.77), Michael Chang (24.43), Lee (21.39), and Zion James (19.86) won by over half a second in a time of 1:29.45. In second was Princeton’s Tyler Hong (23.25), Kael Milnek (25.15), Raunak Khosla (21.62), and Max Walther (19.98), who combined for a time of 1:30.00.
Though Princeton lost the meet, it’s important to note that they were without one of their top freshmen, Conor McKenna (who was ranked by SwimSwam as the #19 recruit in the class of 2022). Their best swimmer, multi-event All-American Raunak Khosla, also did not take any event wins this meet. He was held off by Wu in the 200 fly, swimming a 1:47.94 t0 take second. He was also fourth in the 100 fly and put up a 49.35 in that event. Interestedly enough, Khosla had a completely different event lineup compared to what he swam last week at Princeton’s meet against Dartmouth and Brown, where he competed in the 100 breast, 200 breast, and 400 IM.
That being said, Princeton still had many event wins of their own. They swept the podium in the 1000 free, as John Ehling (9:18.48), Mitchell Schott (9:20.52), and Peyton Werner (9:37.83) went 1-2-3 in the event. On the shorter end of the freestyle spectrum, it was Max Walther and Mitchell Schott who saw success, winning the 50 and 100 free with times of 20.67 and 45.40 respectively. In fact, when Schott and Walther went 1-2 in the 100 free, they were only separated by 0.02 seconds at the finishing touch.
Princeton’s Tyler Hong won the 200 back by nearly a second, clocking a 1:46.75. He was a bit off of his season-best of 1;46.15 from last week’s meet. Hong was also second in the 200 IM in a time of 1:50.98, finishing behind his teammate Josh Brown, who won in 1:48.42. Winning the 100 back was Brett Feyerick, who put up a 49.67 and was the only swimmer in the field under 50 seconds.
To close things off, Princeton’s Adell Sabovic (45.96), Walther (44.48), Nicholas Lim (45.79), and Schott (44.24) took the 400 free relay in a time of 3:00.47. They beat out Columbia’s Kyle Won (45.84), Wu (45.43), Demir (45.45), and Thomas Shepanzyk (45.48) by nearly two seconds.
Columbia’s next competition is against Yale on November 12, whereas Princeton’s is against Cornell on November 18.
