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

Wrestling

Columbia has a very busy weekend coming up—it will wrestle three matches, including two against Ivy League foes. The Lions’ first match of the weekend will be at Princeton (6-10, 1-2 Ivy), at 7 p.m. tonight. Last weekend, the Tigers defeated Harvard to mark their first victory over a ranked opponent in more than a decade, so they have the momentum edge going into the match. Princeton features a number of nationally-ranked wrestlers, including No. 19 senior Daniel Kolodzik, who took down Crimson All-American junior Walter Peppelman at 157 pounds six days ago. On Saturday, the Light Blue will face another Ivy League foe in Penn (5-6, 1-2 Ivy) at 1 p.m., and then take on Rider (9-7). Both the Quakers and Broncs have had success this season. Penn beat No. 14 American University in November and narrowly missed out on a victory against national powerhouse Cornell last month, while Rider defeated a very strong Army team in its first match of the season.

Track and field

The Light Blue will host the Millrose Collegiate Invitational at The Armory this weekend. Columbia is coming off a solid performance last weekend at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, in which the men’s team achieved a seventh-place finish and the women’s team tied in 15th place. The Lions will look for continued production from sophomore Marvellous Iheukwumere and freshman Waverly Neer. Iheukwumere set a new Lions women’s record in the 60-meter dash last weekend, while Neer broke the Columbia women’s indoor mile record. The Light Blue will have to compete against several notable teams such as ACC power Maryland and fellow Ivy rivals Brown, Cornell, and Penn. The tournament will be held all day Saturday at The Armory in New York.

Men's swimming

The Lions (6-3, 3-2 Ivy) wrap up the regular season with a meet on Friday at Princeton, followed by senior night at home against Dartmouth. Their last two Ivy League opponents are diametrically opposed—Princeton has gone 10-0 overall and 5-0 in the Ivy League, while Dartmouth has yet to win a dual meet against an Ancient Eight opponent. Despite a loss to Navy in last weekend’s dual meet, the Lions have had a solid season so far and hope to hit their stride as the Ivy League Championships approach. The final home match of the season will be a chance to continue the Light Blue’s winning streak against Dartmouth and also celebrate the contributions of seniors Chester Dols, Bruno Esquen, Robert Eyckmans, John-Howard Sidman, Alex Smith, and Kevin Zhai. The meet against Princeton will take place Friday at 5 p.m. and senior night will take place at Uris Pool on Saturday starting at 3 p.m.
Women's swimming

Today, the Lions (5-1, 4-1 Ivy) will head to New Jersey to face off against perennial Ivy League rivals Princeton (5-1 Ivy) today, and return for a meet on Saturday against Dartmouth (7-4, 3-3 Ivy) at home. The Light Blue is coming off a double victory, having defeated both Brown and Boston University in a double-dual tri-meet on Jan. 28. Meanwhile, Princeton suffered its first Ivy dual meet loss since the 2006-2007 season last Saturday against Harvard, 190-110. The loss snapped the Tigers’ 43-meet win streak. Though Princeton was originally ranked first in the Ivy League conference and Columbia third, this meet should be a close contest, given that the Lions’ one loss this season was to Harvard, 143-157. The margin of defeat was the closest it has ever been in the schools’ shared history. Dartmouth is 1-2 in its last three Ivy meets and has faced every team in the conference except Columbia. Saturday’s meet may be less competitive than Friday’s, though still a chance for the Columbia women to test themselves before the Ivy League Championships, which are set to take place at Harvard in two weeks.

Men's tennis

With two sweeps on its record, the Lions seek to uphold their winning streak against George Washington and Marist this weekend. The Colonials pose a tough threat, boasting two ranked players in Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week: Freshman Francisco Dias and his doubles partner, senior Ugur Atalay. The team swept St. Joseph’s last Sunday but fell to Temple 4-2 earlier that day. Early in their the spring season with a lone dual 4-3 win over NJIT, the Red Foxes also carry a stellar cast, having completely dominated their conference’s first-team last year. Sophomore Lorenzo Rossi led the squad as last year’s Metro Atlantic Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year. The Lions face George Washington today at 11 a.m. and Marist tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.

Women's tennis

The Light Blue (2-0) looks to remain undefeated in this early stage of the season when it takes on Binghamton at home today. The Bearcats, led by dominant performances in their singles matches, are coming off a second straight victory after an opening-day loss. Likewise, the Light Blue has been strong in the singles field, winning all six singles matches last Friday against Hofstra. The Lions have also emerged as a presence in doubles. In last Saturday’s match against University of Massachusetts, Columbia trailed early in every doubles match before rallying to take all three wins, showing the Lions’ resiliency. Today’s match begins at 3 p.m. at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center.

Men's squash

This week, Columbia takes on two top 10 Ivy League opponents, No. 10 Penn and No. 3 Princeton. After their road trip to Philadelphia, Penn. to challenge Penn on today at 4 p.m., the Lions will host the Tigers in their final home match of the season on Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2:30 p.m.

After suffering back-to-back losses last weekend against No. 7 Dartmouth and No. 4 Harvard, Columbia will seek an opportunity to bounce back this weekend.

The Lions’ attempt to move into the upper half of the Ivy League ladder took a blow last weekend. Columbia currently shares sixth place with Penn in the Ivy rankings with a 1-4 record.

The Quakers are coming off a loss against the No. 1 Bulldogs. The Tigers defeated both Yale and Brown last weekend as they now stand atop the Ivy League with a 5-0 record.

Following this weekend’s last home match against Princeton will be the CSA Championships from Feb. 17-19.

Women's squash

The No. 14 Lions travel to play No. 4 Penn today and return to host No. 5 Princeton on Sunday. This is the team’s last weekend of competition before they head to Nationals in late February. The Lions (5-8, 0-5 Ivy) remain winless in the Ivy League going into the weekend. Both the Quakers (6-3, 3-2 Ivy) and the Tigers (7-3, 2-3 Ivy) have the potential to end their seasons with Ivy League records above .500 and boast 9-0 victories of No. 8 Dartmouth, whose team recently defeated the Light Blue 8-1. It will be a struggle for the Lions to pull out a win against either of these top-seeded teams, but as head coach Kelsey Engman said, “We don’t have anything to lose, so the girls need to go all out and play as hard as they can.” The Lions’ away game on Friday will begin at 4 p.m. and their home game on Sunday will start at 2:30 p.m.