MEN’S SWIM: Bulldogs break six team records, place fourth at Ohio State

Yale Athletics

The men’s swimming and diving team (2–0, 2–0 Ivy) came in fourth at the Ohio State Invitational last weekend, finishing with a grand total of 1292.5 points and breaking six Yale records. 

The Ohio State Invitational took place from Nov. 21 through Nov. 23, and the Buckeyes welcomed the Elis and eight other teams to compete: Cincinnati, Indiana, Louisville, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Penn State, Rutgers and the UCLA women’s team. 

The Bulldogs can use their successes in Columbus as momentum for the remainder of the season.

“Ohio was a great opportunity to see where we are as individuals, what we need to improve to help the team as much as possible in the second half of the season,” Konstantinos Zachariadis ’27 wrote to the News.

Day One: Thursday, Nov. 21

The highlight of the opening day was Jake Wang ’28, who broke a team record in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:45.34. 

Alexander Hazlett ’26 came in 19th, followed by Charlie Egeland ’27 at 1:47.05 and 1:47.69, respectively. 

Noah Millard ’26 excelled in the 500-yard freestyle, placing first and clocking in at 4:11.29. Arshak Hambardzumyan ’28 finished 13th in 4:19.77. 

The Bulldogs also placed well in the relay race. Wang, Nick Finch ’28, Nareg Minassian ’26 and Deniel Nankov ’27 finished fourth in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:17.55. The team of Mak Nurkic Kacapor ’27, Lucius Brown ’26, Alex Deng ’25 and Hazlett came in eighth, clocking in at 1:19.12. In the 400-yard medley relay, the squad of Millard, Egeland, Finch and Nankov finished in 3:07.53, putting them in fifth place. 

In the 50-yard freestyle, Finch placed tenth in 19.82, Nenkov came in 15th with a time of 19.68 and Minassian finished 18th in 19.87. 

On the diving side, Brady Stanton ’28 led the Bulldogs, placing 15th in the 1-meter board competition with his score of 275.3. Fellow first year Jackson Lipscomb ’28 scored 266.6 points, which put him in 18th place. Nicholas Chau ’26 followed closely, finishing two places behind, with a score of 258.6, and Ray Wipfli ’25 came in 28th with 197 points.  

Ending the day with a team total of 377.50 points, the Bulldogs were in fourth, with Penn State, Cincinnati, Northwestern and Notre Dame trailing behind. 

Day Two: Friday, Nov. 22

The highlights of the second day of competition included three broken team records. Egeland, Brown, Nankov and Finch broke the record in the men’s 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:24.98, putting them sixth overall. With a time of 45.50, Finch broke the record in the 100-yard butterfly. In the 200-yard freestyle, Millard’s time of 1:32.42 broke his own record and secured him third. 

Considering his own and the team’s record breaking achievements, Millard was proud of the team’s performance in Columbus. 

“The OSU meet was a great way for everyone on the team to give themselves a benchmark at the halfway point of the season, seeing the successes from their training thus far. It’s also a great opportunity to be compared against other high quality competitors and then to see how we can fine tune our skills in the next 12 weeks before Ivy Champs,” Millard wrote to the News. 

In addition to Millard’s record-breaking finish in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:32.85, Jose Cano ’26 came in 18th in 1:38.38, Nankov in 20th in 1:39.30 and Finn Henry ’26 came in 23rd in the C final. The Bulldogs performed well in the 400-yard individual medley. Jed Jones ’25 came in 16th in 3:50.93, Elliot Lee ’28 in 24th with 3:53.71 and Zachariadis in 30th in 4:02.07. 

Other impressive scores came from Egeland’s ninth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke in 52.54, Wang in 11th with a score of 52.75 and Deng at his heels in 52.97, followed by Hazlett in 15th in 53.24, Minassian in 18th in 54.02 and Alex Brehm ’25 in 29th with a time of 54.82. In the 100-yard backstroke, first-year Manoli Mountantonakis ’28 came in 25th, touching the wall in 48.17; Kacapor’s time of 48.48 placed him 29th. The team of Millard, Jones, Wang and Egeland finished sixth in the 800-yard freestyle relay in 6:26.71. 

The Elis ended a long and successful day of swimming, maintaining their fourth-place spot. 

Day Three: Saturday, Nov. 23

The Bulldogs broke two more records on the final day of competition: Egeland in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:54.82 and Millard in the 1650-yard freestyle in 14:33.47. 

Millard’s record-breaking time and a first-place finish in the 1650-yard freestyle was an NCAA “A” cut mark. Hambardzumyan placed seventh in 15:08.36, Cano in 18th in 15:30.26, Zachariadis in 22nd in 15:35.52 and Henry in 24th in 15:48.62. 

Many Elis posted impressive times in the 200-yard backstroke. Mountantonakis finished 14th in 1:44.56, Lee in 17th with a score of 1:45.93, Kacapor in twenty-fourth in 1:47.24, Jones in 26th in 1:48.40 and Lee rounding out the team in 29th in 1:50.97.  

In the 100-yard freestyle, Nankov’s time of 43.29 put him in eighth. Finch’s time of 43.33, only 0.04 seconds behind Nankov, helped him claim ninth, followed by Minassian in 15th with his time of 43.50, Brown in 25th in 44.44 and Kacapor in 29th, clocking in at 44.84. 

The 200-yard breaststroke put many Elis on the scoreboard. Egeland finished eighth in 1:55.09, Deng in 15th with a time of 1:57.36, Wang in 22nd in 1:57.74 and Brehm in 23rd in 1:59.04. In the 200-yard butterfly, Lee placed 17th in 1:48.40 and Hazlett in 21st in 1:46.66. Millard, Finch, Minassian and Nankov’s time of 2.51.65 in the 400-yard freestyle relay earned them fifth place. 

With a final team score of 1292.5, the Bulldogs ended the Invitational in fourth place.

Reflecting on the team’s wins over the three days, Zachariadis was proud of the team’s performance and looks forward to keeping up the momentum throughout the season. 

“This team can achieve great things and it is a pleasure to be part of it! There were some great swims and we are all excited for what is next!” Zachariadis wrote to the News. 

Millard echoed Zachariadis’ sentiment, expressing that he, too, anticipates the team’s upcoming meets as they continue to build on past successes.

“I’m super motivated after seeing how the team raced,” Millard wrote to the News. “We have a lot of exciting things developing and I can’t wait to see what will happen come our championship meet.”

The Elis will host Southern Connecticut on Wednesday, Dec. 4, and Thursday, Dec. 5, at Payne Whitney Gymnasium’s Kiphuth Exhibition Pool and head to Greensboro, North Carolina, for the U.S. Open from Wednesday, Dec. 4, through Saturday, Dec. 7.