The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams are off to promising starts after their winter break trip to Puerto Rico. The women’s team wasted no time in their return to Patriot League competition, defeating both four-time defending league champions, Bucknell and Army in a three-way duel meet on January 13th. The Raiders squeaked by Bucknell by a score of 158-142, however decisively triumphed over Army by the lopsided score of 210-90. Sophomore Lisa Marchi led the Raiders with three individual event victories and an impressive performance leading off Colgate’s winning relay team. The following event, a non-conference event against Penn, ended with a disappointing 170-119 loss. However, the Raiders did put forth several good performances throughout the meet. In the diving event, despite falling short of the victory, all three Colgate divers posted personal best scores. After the loss against Penn, the women’s team regrouped quickly and won consecutive meets against Lafayette, and most recently Cornell.

The men’s team has not enjoyed the same success as the women, losing three out of their last four meets. After disappointing results in a three-way duel meet against Bucknell and Army, the men’s team put up a much better performance against Penn. In the meet, sophomore Stephen Haskin won both diving events. First-year Joe McGovern also posted a personal best on the one meter board with a score of 199.43. Seniors Greg Dunleavy and Dave Hill posted impressive victories against Lafayette, leading the Raiders to a resounding 168-125 victory. Haskin put forth another great performance, winning the three-meter event. Most recently, the Raiders lost to Cornell 163-114. However, this weekend, the Raiders will look to turn it around at home when they take on Binghamton and Umass-Amherst in a tri-meet. It is the final meet before the Patriot League Championships on February 15th.