Sports Briefly: Wrestling, Men's and Women's Tennis, Swimming, Squash, and Men's Track

Men's Squash
The men’s squash team split the weekend with two wins and two losses, all played on home court. On Friday, in its first match of the weekend, the Light Blue defeated Georgetown 9-1. Saturday began with a matchup with No. 18 Connecticut College. Columbia junior Graham Miao managed to finish off the Camels with a hard-fought 6-4 victory. Four of the Light Blue’s individual wins came in the minimum three games, and two of the losses came in five games. The afternoon match did not go as well. The Lions fell to No. 14 Middlebury 9-1, with freshman Thomas Galluccio earning Columbia’s lone victory. The Light Blue came up short again on Sunday, falling to No. 10 Williams College 9-1.
—Mia Park

Men's Swimming and Diving
The men’s swimming and diving team (5-2, 3-2 Ivy) continued to pick up wins as it defeated Brown 190.5-106.5 and Boston University 192-106 in a double dual tri-meet. Swimmers mixed up their typical events—freshman Omar Arafa won the 100-yard freestyle, while freshmen David Jakl and Michael Fox-Moles tied for first in the 100 backstroke. The relay teams also turned out strong performances, with the 200-medley relay team of Arafa, senior Bruno Esquen, junior John Wright, and freshman Stanley Wong taking first place. The divers also contributed, with junior Jason Collazo winning both the one-meter and three-meter diving events and freshman Micah Rembrandt taking third in the one-meter dive and second in the three-meter dive.
—Eric Wong

Men's Tennis
In its first dual match of the season, the men’s tennis team rocketed off to an impressive start by sweeping Fordham 7-0 on Saturday. Highlights of the tournament included a doubles match won by Columbia juniors Nathaniel Gery and John Yetimoglu, who defeated Michael Puntillo and J.J. Tauil 8-1 at the No. 3 spot. Following in their wake, senior Haig Schneiderman and freshman Winston Lin beat Fordham’s Mischa Koran and Kuba Kowalski in an 8-5 match at the No. 1 spot, and freshmen Max Schnur and Ashok Narayana took the No. 2 spot with an 8-4 win. The players of the singles matches also had notable success, particularly in the fierce face-off between Schneiderman and Kowalski as they battled it out for the No. 1 spot. The match was neck-and-neck, but ultimately, Schneiderman emerged victorious and cemented the 7-0 sweep for the Lions.
—Elise Drexler

Men's Track and Field
The men’s track and field team accumulated a total of 40 points at The Armory II meet this past weekend, taking third place in a field of 13 teams. Unlike their two previous meets this season, the Lions had better results in the short-distance and field events than in the mid-distance ones this weekend. Sophomore Cody Love took third in the 400-meter dash, and the Columbia team, comprised of Love, freshman Kevin Boyd, sophomore Sam Miner, and sophomore Nolan Kier, took second place in the 4x400m relay. Sophomore Duncan Dickerson took first place in the weight throw, with a distance of 18.15 meters.
—Melissa Cheung

Women's Swimming and Diving
The women’s swimming and diving team (5-1, 4-1 Ivy) walked away on Saturday from its double-dual tri-meet against Brown and Boston University with a pair of victories. The Lions finished 184-115 over Boston and 182-118 against Brown. In the first event, Brown’s 200-yard medley relay out-touched the Columbia A squad, but a Light Blue team of freshman Chacha Bugatti and sophomores Aileen Smith and Corinna Bertlesen followed up with a dominant 2-3-4 placement in the 1000 freestyle. The Lions continued to win, as senior Dorothy Baker touched first in the 100 backstroke and junior Katie Meili won the 100 breaststroke. In the 200 butterfly, juniors Caroline Lukins and Kristina Parsons finished second and third. Meanwhile, in the diving events, freshman Alyssa Menz and sophomore Katie Furr were the two top finishers for the Lions in the one-meter dive. To finish off the meet, Columbia’s 400 freestyle relay of Baker, Meili, freshman Salena Huang, and sophomore Laney Kluge touched the wall first.
—Charlotte Murtishaw

Wrestling
The wrestling team dominated Franklin and Marshall this past Friday, taking the dual match by a score of 32-12. Seven of the Lions’ 10 wrestlers won their matches, with the Light Blue’s three losses coming in the 141-, 184-, and 197-pound classes. Kevin Lester, a 285-pound senior, posted another strong performance, pinning Diplomat freshman Alexander Henry in 4:15 to mark his 13th consecutive win after a shaky start to the season. Senior Kyle Gilchrist picked up his 20th win of the year at 133 pounds and became the fourth Columbia wrestler with 20 wins on the season, joining Lester, 157-pound junior Jake O’Hara, and 174-pound junior Stephen West.
—Eli Schultz

Women's Tennis
Women’s tennis won both Flight A championships at the Cornell Invitational this past weekend. Sophomores Bianca Sanon and Tiana Takenaga claimed the doubles title against the Big Red’s freshman Nina Turudic and sophomore Ryann Young after the Cornell tandem withdrew from fever. Second-seeded Sanon went on to defeat the host’s junior Christine Ordway in the singles championship 6-2, 6-4. Junior Katarina Kovacevic and freshman Crystal Leung made it to the Flight B championships before falling 8-6. Cornell swept Flight C after Columbia freshman Amy Li lost in the quarterfinals.
—Laura Allen

Women's Squash
Going 2-2 in four matches this weekend, the women’s squash team trounced lower-ranked teams but struggled against top competition. The No. 15 Lions started their weekend by sweeping No. 30 Georgetown on Friday and No. 22 Connecticut College on Saturday in two 9-0 victories. Despite a 3-6 loss to a strong No. 12 Middlebury team in its second Saturday matchup, the Light Blue aimed to rebound against No. 11 Williams. Although Columbia ended up falling to Williams in an apparently one-sided 2-7 match score, the Light Blue had moments of brilliance against its highly-ranked rival. Fifth-seeded freshman Dheeya Somaiya and sixth-seeded sophomore Skylar Dickey both pulled out victories in their individual matchups for Columbia. Somaiya took out her opponent in straight games and kept her composure when the scored was tied at 9-9 in the third, winning two pressure-filled points to take the match. Dickey showed similar poise after she lost her opening game 8-11 and went on to take three straight games for the win.
—Caroline Bowman