ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's swimming and diving team will be out to shatter school records and lifetime bests when they head to Providence, R.I. for the four-day Ivy League Championships beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at Brown's Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center. The final three days of the meet will be broadcast on ESPN+.

Cornell will have several swimmers at or near the top of the standings in a number of events, led by junior Ryan Brown in the breaststroke. Brown enters the meet with the third-fastest time in the 100 breast (54.70) and No. 7 in the 200 breast (2:01.35). Senior Jack Mahoney sits fifth in the conference in the 50 free (20.09), junior Dylan Curtis is seventh in the 100 back (48.87) and sophomore Van Cates is top 10 in the 200 back (1:47.24). A number of other swimmers and divers are expected to challenge lifetime-best marks and join the scoring brigade for the Big Red.

Harvard and/or Princeton have won at least a share of the Ancient Eight crown every year since 1971, though both Penn and Yale are expected to challenge at the top. The Big Red's only Ivy title in the sport came as part of a four-way tie atop the standings with the Crimson and Tigers, as well as Columbia, in 1984.

Cornell posted a 4-5 dual meet record (2-5 Ivy) this season with wins over Dartmouth and Yale. A year ago, Cornell finished sixth as a team highlighted by Alex Evdokimov's record-setting meet. The eight-time Ivy breaststroke champion set school, pool and meet records in both the 100 and 200 breast events amd became the 11th four-time event winner in conference history. In all, Cornell set three school records during the four-day meet in 2018.