The Columbia men’s swimming and diving team will try to climb out of the conference cellar this Saturday, traveling to Philadelphia to take on fellow bottom-feeder Penn with both teams searching for their first Ivy win. Columbia (2-2, 0-2 Ivy) currently sits in a three-way tie with Penn (3-2, 0-2) and Dartmouth (1-5, 0-4 Ivy) and will look to build upon its limited success from last weekend’s Princeton Invitational in New Jersey—in which the Lions placed fifth out of eight teams.

The Columbia relay teams fared well, as four squads placed fourth in the 200-, 400-, and 800-yard freestyle relays and in the 200-yard medley relay. For their part, several members of the relay teams finaled in individual events. Sophomore Darren Pagan earned two top-10 finishes, placing seventh in the 200-yard individual medley and eighth in the 400-yard individual medley.

Meanwhile, it was just another weekend in the pool for relay teammate Hyun Lee, who continued to produce in the water, placing fourth in the 200-yard butterfly. Lee also finished seventh in the 100-yard freestyle, an event that was dominated by Penn State, as the Nittany Lions took six of the top eight spots. Junior Cedric Cheung-Lau posted the best finish for a Light Blue swimmer in the meet, touching second in the 400-yard individual medley.

Lions’ senior captain Henning Fog was pleased with the performances his teammates turned out.

“Unrested and unshaved, I thought the team swam quite well at Princeton,” he said. “We were able to hold our own against teams far more prepared for the meet than us.”

On the other hand, Penn has some momentum on its side. The Quakers are fresh off a second-place finish at last weekend’s Nike Invitational in Gambier, Ohio. The final day of competition, Saturday, saw several Penn records fall. In the day’s first event, the 200-yard individual medley relay team of Larkin MacDonald, Chaz Maul, Brad Farris, and Devon Carr placed second and broke a school record with a time of 1:31.62. Not to be outdone, the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Carr, Pat Gallagher, Chris Buck, and Kyle Loughran touched first later in the day and set not only a Penn record but a Kenyon pool record as well.

For the Quakers, however, the highlight of the meet was the performance of sophomore James Fee, who was named the co-Swimmer of the Meet. Fee set a pool record in the 500-yard freestyle, finishing three seconds ahead of teammate Gallagher with a time of 4:30.91. Freshman Kyle Yeager also set a pool record in the 200-yard individual medley, placing first with a time of 1:53.35.

According to Fog, the Quakers have a much more developed team than the Lions at this point in the season and will present a unique test.

“There’s no doubt Penn will be a real challenge,” Fog said. “Essentially, we are racing a March team. We will have to rely on whatever vim and vigor we can scrounge together in order to beat the Quakers.”

Despite being winless in the Ivy League thus far, Fog has faith in the talent and ability that exists on the team.

“League wins will happen when they’re meant to,” he said. “I don’t mean that to sound defeatist—as a team, we have done and will do everything possible against Ivy teams to emerge victorious. Quite often we’re the underdog. This is all on paper, though; meets are decided in the pool, and anything can happen.”