Women's swimming and diving places sixth at Ivy Championships in meet that makes national headlines

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24 February, 2022

1:22 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY TUPELO SULLIVAN FEBRUARY 23, 2022 Women's swimming and diving earned sixth place last week at the Ivy League Championships, the same result as at the last Ancient Eight showdown in 2020. Though the Lions were unable to achieve a breakthrough team showing, several swimmers displayed lifetime bests and individual accomplishments that point to the program's success. Columbia's performance occurred during a meet that sparked a national dialogue after Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer on Penn's team, broke meet and pool records. At the start of the four-day championship, the Light Blue (4-4, 3-4 Ivy) swam in two races to achieve a fifth-place tie with Brown (3-4, 3-4 Ivy). The team began the day with a sixth-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay, and then produced an impressive 7:16.55 mark in the 800-yard freestyle relay for fifth place, less than a second behind Princeton (8-1, 7-1 Ivy), which finished fourth. Over the next three days, sophomore Aziza Ganihanova proved she was a swimmer to watch, reaching the podium in three individual events. Her time of 4:48.88 earned her sixth place in the 500-yard freestyle. In the opening race of the third day, Ganihanova secured third in the grueling 1,000-yard freestyle and returned the next day to claim eighth in the 200-yard backstroke, giving the Lions 22 more points. Head coach Diana Caskey reflected on Ganihanova's performance, crediting much of it to her composure and tenacity throughout longer races like the 1000-yard freestyle. "[Ganihanova is] one of the people that can stay in her own lane and … not get worked up about what's going on around her," Caskey said. "She didn't get riled because she doesn't take her races out super fast like some people do … and just maintained her race plan … working down and picking people off as the race went on." Senior Mary Pruden saw similar success to conclude her conference career, taking third in the 400-yard individual medley and seventh in the 200-yard backstroke, the former of which gave her a NCAA B-qualifying score. Even though no other Columbia athletes made the podium, many Lions showed significant improvement and lifetime bests in their respective events. Junior Isabelle Arevalo clinched first in the 100-yard freestyle C final and fourth in the 50-yard freestyle B final. First-years Allison Martin and Emily MacDonald both swam collegiate bests, with Martin winning the 200-yard butterfly B final and MacDonald trailing Arevalo for fifth in the 50-yard freestyle B final. "For us it's important that a lot of people were achieving lifetime bests and scoring points for Columbia," Caskey said. "Even though they are not on the podium it's very cool to know that [we were] having a lot of success that might not get the headlines." Off the diving board, sophomore Alice Diakova made a splash in the 1-meter final, tying for sixth and providing the Lion divers their highest-place finish of the week. Senior Briget Rosendahl placed eighth in the B finals of the same event, and went on to achieve seventh in the 3-meter dive B finals. Head diving coach Scott Donie said he was proud of the team and its resilience over the long and taxing championships. "My main goal for them is to have a positive experience [and] to enter with confidence, and then regardless of the outcome, whether it's good or bad, to be graceful winners or graceful losers. I was happy with how it went. The future is very bright for us," Donie said. The meet made national headlines after Lia Thomas, a freestyle sprint swimmer on the Penn women's team who is transgender, shattered meet and pool records. Thomas was first to hit the wall in the 100-, 200-, and 500-yard freestyles and lead her team to a 400-yard freestyle relay victory beneath a banner at Harvard's Blodgett Pool reading "8 Against Hate." As she heads into the NCAA championships next month, Thomas has become the target of backlash from those who argue that the rules allowing her to compete are unfair. Before the meet, 16 unnamed Penn swimmers signed a letter asking the institution to comply with an NCAA policy that, if enacted, would prevent Thomas from competing in women's races due to her current testosterone levels. In response, over 300 current and former NCAA swimmers signed a letter advocating for her participation in the women's season. Both the Ivy League and Penn expressed support for Thomas's eligibility in separate statements. "Over the past several years, Lia and the University of Pennsylvania have worked with the NCAA to follow all of the appropriate protocols in order to comply with the NCAA policy," the Ivy League wrote in a statement. "The league welcomes her participation in the sport of women's swimming and diving and looks forward to celebrating the success of all of our student-athletes throughout the season." Caskey said that Ivy League communications has asked her not to comment on Thomas' performance and eligibility. Columbia will send its swimmers who did not compete at the Ivy Championships to the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships this Friday. All seven divers are gearing up for NCAA Zone Championships at the U.S. Naval Academy from March 7 to 9, where they will compete for slots at the NCAA Championships in Atlanta. Staff writer Tupelo Sullivan can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow CU Spec Sports on Twitter @CUSpecSports. 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