Cornell’s swimming and diving teams begin their seasons at home against Harvard and Penn this weekend, bringing back individual Ivy League champions, record holders and a women’s group looking to build on a sixth-place conference finish.
Diving is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6, with swimming Saturday, Nov. 7, at Teagle Pool, according to Cornell’s season outlooks for the men and women. Both teams get an immediate Ivy test before moving into their fall invitational schedules.
Conway leads men after Ivy title
The Cornell men finished fifth at last season’s Ivy championships with 841 points, ahead of Brown’s 805 and behind Columbia’s 901.5. Coach Wes Newman’s team returns Blake Conway, who won the 100-yard backstroke in 45.77 seconds and later placed 43rd at the NCAA championships with a time of 46.41.
Conway’s Ivy-winning swim was the second-fastest in program history, behind the 45.29 school record held by Pietro Ubertalli. His return gives Cornell a proven championship swimmer as Newman works to turn the team’s training and depth into more consistent performances across a full meet.
The sprint group also brings back school-record experience in the 50 freestyle through Josh Toothman. Cornell’s returning sophomore group includes Soren Koschmann, Duke Garvin and Will Chen, while Yaron Li is returning after illness interrupted his progress. Their development will help determine how much support the team can put behind its leading scorers.
Julian Correa gives Cornell strength across longer events. He holds the school record in the 400 individual medley and finished 11th in the 1,650 freestyle at Ivies in 15:15.09. Freshman Jeremy Ting adds another option in the 400 IM, one of the events where Cornell will look to deepen its scoring.
The breaststroke group includes Haihan Xu, who was sixth in the 200 breaststroke at the conference meet in 1:55.58, and Emmanuel Gadson, who finished 11th in 1:57.49. Those returning results give the Big Red points to build around as the season moves toward February.
Cornell also returns experience on the diving boards under coach Michael Ross. Juniors William Klingensmith and Max Reis-Trovillion are joined by sophomore Peter Buskirk and freshman Henry Palmquist. Reis-Trovillion was 15th on the 3-meter board at Ivies with 274.10 points.
Yoon, Yee anchor women’s returners
The Cornell women finished sixth at Ivies with 614.5 points, ahead of Columbia and Dartmouth. Coach Patrick Gallagher’s team brings back Hojung Yoon, whose three individual finishes produced 63 points at the championship meet.
Yoon placed fourth in the 200 IM in 1:59.77, ninth in the 200 backstroke in 1:56.62 and 10th in the 400 IM in 4:16.98. Her range makes her a central part of Cornell’s lineup as the Big Red work to strengthen the group around their top returning scorers.
Katherine Yee returns after tying for ninth in the 200 butterfly in 2:00.46 and placing 14th in the 100 butterfly in 54.71. Cornell’s outlook identifies her as a swimmer capable of moving into the top three in the conference, a potential jump that would add to the team’s championship foundation.
Senior captains Erin DeHollander and Ming Xu and junior captain Rosalee Springer lead the roster. Springer tied for 11th in the 100 backstroke and 15th in the 200 backstroke at Ivies and was 18th in the 200 IM. DeHollander scored in the 200, 500 and 1,650 freestyle, finishing 17th in the mile in 17:03.94.
Oceane Vanlinthout adds experience across the individual medley and butterfly events. She finished 16th in the 200 IM, 15th in the 400 IM and 17th in the 200 butterfly. Arina Vorobyeva is another returning swimmer whose technical development is part of Cornell’s plans for the season.
The newcomers include Sarah Carrico, Amy Chai, Abby Lee, Kate Lucyshyn, Anna Nishnianidze and Mae Winardi. Their arrival gives Gallagher more options as the team establishes its early-season lineups and prepares for its winter championship meets.
Cornell’s eight-person women’s diving group includes seniors Brooke Andrews and Morgan Ogata, sophomore Lilla Kuziemko and newcomers Ava Jannink and Kendall Rummel. Kuziemko placed eighth on the 1-meter board at Ivies with 235.35 points, earning 22 team points. Andrews was 14th with 243.20 points, adding 13.
Ogata finished 11th on the 3-meter board with 271.65 points. Kuziemko and Andrews were 17th and 18th in the preliminaries. Andrews’ return from injury gives Ross another experienced option, and the outlook describes the possibility of taking six divers to the conference championships.
Fall meets lead toward separate Ivy championships
After the home opener, the men visit New Haven for competition against Yale and Dartmouth on Nov. 13-14. Their fall schedule also includes a November meet at Buffalo and the Zippy Invitational in December, giving Cornell opportunities to measure its progress before the January dual-meet stretch.
The women compete at the Western New York Invitational on Nov. 20-21 and the Zippy Invitational on Dec. 3-6. Those meets will give the newcomers a chance to contribute alongside the returning scorers before the team begins the second half of its season.
Cornell’s men host Columbia on Jan. 29, while the women face Columbia at home Jan. 30. The men also have Boston University competition Feb. 5-6 before their Ivy championships in Providence Feb. 24-27. The women’s Ivy championships are scheduled for Feb. 17-20 at Princeton.
The two programs share this weekend’s opening opponents and home pool, but their championship targets fall a week apart. For both, the Harvard-Penn meet begins the process of building lineups around returning standouts and finding more scoring throughout the roster.
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