Smit Keeps the Pace; Wins 200 Fly

Mike Smit ('09, Cornell) also did his best to be put in the mix for the Swimmer of the Meet by staving off a furious challenge from the rest of the competition and winning in the oft undesirable Lane 2. Smit found himself in Lane 2 after qualifying in 3rd position during the preliminaries.

But in the final, his performance left absolutely no doubt that he was the swimmer to beat in the race. His 1:46.44 outdueled Meir Hasbani ('07, Princeton), the leading qualifier in the preliminaries, and his 1:47.04.

So add Mr. Smit as the 4th deserving candidate for the Swimmer of the Meet.

McKechnie Delivers in 200 Breast

Ready for a 3rd name to the Swimmer of the Meet consideration?

Dave McKechnie ('07, Cornell).

McKechnie smoked the rest of the field to also remain undefeated in the overall competition as he led wire-to-wire in the 200 Breaststroke. His 2:00.18 held off a challenge from two Columbia swimmers and provided much needed points for the overall team competition that now looks much closer than Princeton (the leaders at that beginning of the day) would prefer.

Congratulations, Dave on a superb swim.

Cornell Holds Off Columbia in the 800 Freestyle Relay

In what was easily the best race of the night, Cornell staved off a fantastic upset bid by Columbia University. Columbia gave everything they had in this race, and prior to the last exchange were actually leading.

Only a fantastic anchor leg by Mike Smit ('07) kept Columbia from staging a monumental upset. The team of Kevin Wakefield ('09), Hyun Lee ('09), John Dragelin ('09), and Tobin White ('07) battled the entire way, and by using exceptional speed and textbook turns, nearly stunned the crowd. To put it in perspective, and if you consider seeding times as valid measures of performance, then Columbia seemingly came out of nowhere to place 2nd.

But at the end of the day, it was Smit, combined with Wes Newman ('09), Dave McKechnie ('07) and Brad Gorter ('08) keeping Columbia and the rest of the teams at bay, to capture the full allotment of points.

We'll see you tomorrow!

Smit Owns Pool Record in 200 Free

DeNunzio's Pool is officially Mike Smit's ('07, Cornell) to own. Well at least in the 200 Free it is.

Although he was off the pace that he posted in the 2006 meet by .1 second, his 1:35.52 erased a pool record that has been in existence since 1:36.33. The original mark was held by Mike Kiedel of Harvard, who also owns the EISL record.

Smit is also making a very compelling case for another Swimmer of the Meet distinction. Not surprisingly, Smit and Geoff Rathgeber of Harvard were co-Swimmers of the Meet last year, and both appear poised to compete for the distinction again this year.

And We've Got Controversy!

Nothing quite like starting off the night with some old fashioned controversy.

It appeared that Harvard was deemed the winner in the 200 Medley Relay, however the 1st place points and bragging rights were very short lived.

Shorter than any Harvard fan would like, that's for sure.

Within seconds after the final swimmer touched the wall to signify the end of the race, the big board at Princeton showed a disqualification of Harvard for an unspecified broken rule.

Harvard took a massive blow to their chances of winning the overall competition as a result of the disqualification, which ultimately penalized them 64 points. But the gaff also rewarded Cornell with yet another relay win in a time of 1:29.11.

Cornell Breaks Another; Princeton Leads

The Cornell 400 Medley Relay added another record for the books. With a blistering opening leg, Cornell cruised to Meet, EISL, and Pool Record Gold. Their time was 3:13.61.

As for the First Day scores:

Princeton leads the competition with consistently strong showings in all events with a 442.

Princeton - 442
Harvard - 353 1/2
Cornell - 304
Navy - 266 1/2
Columbia - 266
Yale - 260
Brown - 197
Penn - 147
Dartmouth - 120

We'll see you tomorrow for Day 2.

Thanks for the Memories, Rick!

Rick Gilbert has given so much to the Ivy League and sport of diving, that it is time for us to repay him with our gratitude.

Rick will be retiring after 39 years worth of coaching at Cornell. Thank you for everything that you have done for our conference and student-athletes everywhere.

Enjoy your retirement, and come back and see us sometime. We'd be honored to have you back around.
Joining Rick in the above picture are, from L to R; Andy Noel (Cornell AD), Joe Lucia (Head Coach), Rick Gilbert, Paul Steck and Larry Moore (former Cornell divers)

In the 500 Free, It's ...

... A TIE?!?!

No way. I don't believe it. Not possible.

But yet that is where we stand. The one thing we can say is that Cornell takes another 1st place point setting (err...make the 2 1st places). After 500 yards of water, the Cornell tandem of Mike Smit ('07) and Wes Newman ('09) decided that they would rather tie than have to go back to Ithaca, N.Y. with dissention in the ranks and bragging rights.

The good news for Cornell is that this random act of kindness and unselfishness has distanced Cornell atop the leaderboard for the time being.

Good teamwork, lads!

Cornell's Dual-Meet Triumphs Recognized

Ladies and gentlemen,

Before we get into tonight's action, the Ivy League would like to make a special presentation. As is the case every year, the Ivy League champion will be crowned at the end of Saturday's session.

During the regular season, however, the nine schools of the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League compete intensely in a dual-meet season that begins in November and concludes in early February. It is the League's honor present this year's dual-meet winner with a trophy to recognize this very significant accomplishment.

With an undefeated 8-0 dual-meet record, the 2006-07 version of the trophy was awarded to the Cornell Big Red.

Congratulations to Cornell on a tremendous dual-meet season.

Cornell Propels to the Lead

Cornell laid down the gauntlet in the 200 Freestyle Relay to win quite comfortably in the first event of the night. The team was led by strong swims in each of the disciplines by Mike Smit, Dave McKechnie, Brad Gorter and Wes Newman. The winning time of 1:19.96 was second only to Princeton's Ivy Record swim in 2003.

The excitement in the event actually came in the race for 3rd through 5th place, which saw a logjam of 3 teams differentiated by .01 seconds. Tobin White's anchor leg allowed Columbia to nip both Yale and Pennsylvania and secured the vital 3rd place points.