The Colgate University’s men and women’s swimming and diving teams are midway through another exciting season. The women’s swimming and diving teams started their seasons strong with an undefeated streak, winning their first four meets including against Lafayette College and Le Moyne College. In their most recent meets, women’s swimming and diving lost 201 to 98 against Loyola University Maryland and 185 to 114 to Lehigh University, both on Nov. 2, and went 115 to Marist College’s 180 on Nov. 9.
The men’s team, which consists of only a swimming side, took third of four teams in their first two meets before besting Le Moyne 193-104 on Oct. 25. In the most recent meets, Colgate lost 161 to 133 against Lafayette, 47 to Loyola’s 237, 64 to Lehigh’s 212 and 98 to 158 at Marist. Despite the losses, men’s swimming captain and senior Morgan Cecil focused on the strengths of his team against Lafayette.
“Unfortunately, we do not have any divers on the men’s side, so Lafayette picked up more than 30 uncontested points,” Cecil said. “We lost the meet by 28 points, which means we beat them in the swimming portion. While the results do not show that we won, we were very happy with this outcome.”
Looking ahead, Cecil expressed excitement for the rest of the season. Over Thanksgiving break, the teams will travel to compete at the Brown Invite in Providence, R.I., for their mid-season meet.
“This meet is the best opportunity for swimmers to show off the state of their training both to the coaching staff, as they begin to select a team to travel to the Patriot League Championships in February, and to opposing Patriot League teams,” Cecil said. “I am looking forward to seeing some very fast swims from my teammates, and hopefully myself.”
Senior and Captain of the women’s team Elke Ambach shared Cecil’s excitement for the Brown Invite.
“The team has been looking great at practices and meets, so we are expecting some great races at Brown and then it should be a great second half of the season as we prepare for Patriots in mid-February,” Ambach said.
Junior Elizabeth Rainey credited the team’s culture for their performance this year.
“I feel like the season has gone really well so far — our team is super cohesive and goal oriented and when we are having fun, that’s when we swim well too,” Rainey said. “[Brown] is a great meet for us swim-wise and is also great for team bonding because it’s against teams we normally don’t race against, and we tend to swim pretty competitively against the other schools there like Georgetown University, University of New Hampshire and Brown University.”
When reflecting on her four years of women’s swimming, Ambach highlighted the unity of the team as well as its all-around growth.
“My teammates are my best friends, and I am very grateful for all the fun times I’ve had with them,” Ambach said. “It’s been exciting to be a part of a team that has gotten bigger and faster each year.”
Cecil also emphasized how the men’s swimming team has bounced back and grown stronger over the past four years.
“I am so proud to have been on this team as it has grown in size and culture,” Cecil said. “When I joined the team my first year, there were 14 guys on the roster, eight of which were first-years. We are now up to 25. I have also swam with three different assistant coaches, who each were incredible in different ways and contributed to the athlete I am today.”
