CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – For the first time in Cornell men's swimming and diving history, the Big Red found itself atop the podium in the 100-yard backstroke, as freshman Paige daCosta was crowned the Ivy League Champion in the event on Friday at Harvard's Blodgett Pool in Cambridge, Mass.

A day after swimming his way to second-team All-Ivy honors in the 200-yard IM, daCosta won Cornell its first-ever Ivy League title in the 100-backstroke with a school record time of 46.52. The first-team All-Ivy honoree surpassed Dylan Sali's previous school record of 46.82 that was set at the 2015 Ivy League Championships.

daCosta had company in the A Final of the 100-yard backstroke, as Dylan Curtis placed fourth in 47.40. Both daCosta's and Curtis' times made the NCAA B Cut.

The Big Red saw a second school record fall on Friday in the 400-yard medley relay, as the team of daCosta, Ryan Brown, Jack Mahoney, and Trevor Lake finished third in 3:11.62, shattering the Cornell school record in the process. The team's mark bested the previous record of 3:12.22 that was recorded at the 2016 Ivy League Championships by Dylan Sali, Alex Evdokimov, Lucas Reisch, and Jack Brenneman.

Brown and Mahoney also excelled in their individual events, both qualifying for the A Final of their respective races. Brown finished fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke (54.42), while Mahoney placed eighth in the 100-yard butterfly (47.50). This marked Mahoney's second eighth-place finish of the weekend, as he also qualified for the A Final in the 50-yard freestyle yesterday. James Huang won the B Final of the 100-yard butterfly, touching the wall ninth with the third-fastest time in Cornell history (47.64).

With one day of competition remaining, Cornell sits in sixth place with 583.5 points. The Big Red's point total trails fifth-place Yale (657.5 points) by 74 points and leads seventh-place Penn (528.5 points) by 55 points.

The final day of the 2020 Ivy League Men's Swimming and Diving Championships will resume tomorrow at 11 a.m. with day four prelims. Finals will follow at 6 p.m. Fans who can't be in attendance can catch all the action on ESPN+.

OTHER NOTABLE PERFORMANCES

1,000-yard Freestyle
13th – Jordan Blitz (9:14.18) – fifth-fastest time in Cornell history
16th – Jake Lawson (9:14.65) – sixth-fastest time in Cornell history

400-yard IM
11th – Owen Downs (3:53.76)
13th – Jack Valiquette (3:54.76) – preliminary time of 3:53.58 is the fifth-fastest in Cornell history
14th – Ryan Pirrung (3:55.40) – preliminary time of 3:54.63 is the seventh-fastest in Cornell history
16th – Ricardo Martinez (3:59.21)

100-yard Breaststroke
14th – Jacob Bass (55.35) – preliminary time of 55.08 is the eighth-fastest in Cornell history