ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cornell men's swimming and diving time will begin the final stretch of its 2023-24 schedule on Monday when it travels to Connecticut to battle Ivy League foe Yale from Kiphuth Exhibition Pool. The swimming portion of the meet will begin at 11 a.m. with diving to follow at 3 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT: THREE RECORDS FALL AS BIG RED MEN TAKE TOP SPOT AT 2023 ZIPPY INVITATIONAL 

Cornell looks to feed off the momentum built from its last time in the pool at the 2023 Zippy Invitational, as the Big Red set three new program records to help earn its first team championship since 2019-20 in the four-day event held Nov. 30-Dec. 3 in Akron, Ohio.

The quartet of Jack Banks, Dominic Edwards, Julian Correa, and Jacques Grove earned the first program record in the 800-Freestyle Relay, shaving off over a second of the previous record set at the 2023 Ivy League Championships with a time of 6:27.04.

The Big Red would have to wait until the last day of the event for the other two program records to fall. The first domino fell in the 200-Butterfly, as Joseph Gurski shaved 0.40 seconds off his preliminary time to take home the top spot in the A-final with a 1:44.85. That time broke the junior's previous record set at last year's Ivy League Championships and the Ocasek Natatorium record set by Penn's Andrew Dai at the 2022 Zippy Invite.

Cornell's second record-breaking time of the final day came in the final event of the invite, as Edwards, Paige daCosta, Sebastian Wolff, and Grove shaved over a second off the program's previous 400-Freestyle Relay record, clocking a combined 2:54.43. The team's swim was also a program record in Akron, besting the 2:55.49 pace set by Penn at last season's invite.

There were other highlight finishes from other Big Red swimmers at the invite. Freshman Julian Correa continued his excellent freshman season, earning runner-up finishes in the 500 (4:21.25) and the 1650-Freestyle (15:33.72) and a bronze in the 400-IM. The upperclassmen also put in solid work, as daCosta and Wolff earned the top two spots in the 200-IM, while Gurski (100-Butterfly) and Soodong Kim (3-Meter Dive) took home the top spots in their respective events.

Cornell's 2,015 points scored was also the second-most the Big Red has put up in its four trips to the Buckeye State, trailing only its 2,527.5 performance from 2019.

INSIDE THE OPPONENT: YALE

Since the first matchup in 1910-11, Yale has dominated the all-time series, holding a 57-16 advantage heading into Monday's meet. Cornell is looking for its first win over the Bulldogs since taking a 148-146 victory in Ithaca on Jan. 19, 2019.  

Yale comes into the weekend at 1-2 overall and 0-1 in Ivy League play. It will also be its third conference meet of the new year, as it will travel to Hanover on Jan. 13 to battle Dartmouth and Penn before returning home to face the Big Red on Monday. The blue and white closed its 2023 portion of its schedule with a 187-80 victory over Southern Connecticut State on Dec. 7. Multiple Bulldogs picked up event wins, including Lucius Brown taking the 50 and 150-Backstroke events and Jean Paul Ditto sweeping the 1-Meter and 3-Meter diving events.

UP NEXT

The men face a quick turnaround as it heads to New York, N.Y. to battle the Columbia Lions from Percy Uris Natatorium on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 1 p.m.