Yale Athletics

After winning the 1650 freestyle, his third victory of the week, Noah Millard ’25 waved his fists in the air victoriously. Millard’s performance not only set three records, but also helped the men’s swim and dive team place third this past weekend at the Ivy League Championships.

The Ivy League Championships at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, which spanned from Wednesday to Saturday for the men’s swim and dive team, saw Yale place third overall behind Harvard and Princeton. In addition to Millard’s standout performances, team captain Joseph Page ’23 won the 100 freestyle. The men’s third-place finish came one week after the women’s team placed third overall in their Ivy League tournament. 

“We all bought into the vision of a top three finish at Ivies and have been working for it day in and day out,” said Millard. “The leadership and camaraderie on this team is outstanding and unlike any other team I’ve been on. Swimming for something bigger than yourself is an amazing thing and it felt great to contribute to the team.”

Millard was on a winning and record-breaking streak as he won the 200, 500 and 1650 freestyle, hitting a personal best time in each event. In addition, he broke the Yale, Ivy League and Brown pool record in the 500 freestyle and earned himself the Phil Moriarty High Point Swimmer of the Meet Award on the last night of the competition. 

Millard was “extremely satisfied” after hitting every goal he set out to accomplish at this meet. He received an NCAA A cut, putting him in the top 10 in the country and ensuring himself an invitation to the NCAA Championships in Minnesota next month. 

“In 2022, we left Ivies feeling like we missed our potential and had a lot of unsatisfied swimmers and divers,” Millard said. “This year across the board we had every athlete make a final and the number of personal bests being put up at each session was fantastic.”

The best moment from the meet, Millard said, was seeing his best friend and team captain Page win an Ivy title for the last event of the meet — the 100 freestyle. Millard and Page have a long-standing friendship, having met on their recruitment trip before officially competing for Yale.

“I can safely say I’ve never been more proud of someone else’s success than how I felt watching him last night,” Millard said. “We both swam on the 4×100 relay at the end and swimming for him at his last meet was super emotional — we all wanted to give him and the senior class the sendoff they deserved.” 

Female swimmer Alex Massey ’24 felt a similar sentiment for her senior teammates, noting that her favorite moment from Ivies was hearing Ava Franks ’25 sing the national anthem to kick off the women’s Ivy Championships. 

“Ava is such a talented swimmer but hearing her sing is ethereal  — or [my favorite part might have been] celebrating each senior swim their last races ever,” said Massey.

Massey placed second in the 200 butterfly while the other women worked together to help Yale finish second in the 400 freestyle relay. 

In men’s diving, Jean Paul Ditto ’24 placed second in the three meter dive. Fellow three meter diver Ray Wipfli ’25 attributes the team’s success to the bond the team shares. Looking forward, Wipfli said he hopes that the team “can keep the ball rolling and continue to push for better and better performances.”

Aidan Thomas ’25 placed third on the one meter dive, scoring a personal best. He told the News that he was pleasantly surprised to score ninth place on the three meter dive after a shaky preliminary round. Thomas said that he had worked all year to improve on his one meter dive, which was his weakest event coming into this season.

The “energy” of the team helped him stay focused for the rest of the events, and Thomas called it a “main factor in [the team’s] success.”

A group of men’s swimmers are going to The Ohio State University next to try to qualify for the NCAA Zonals in the 200 freestyle relay. Currently, they are only 0.3 seconds off from qualifying.

“Standing up on the block was an easy task knowing that you could look to the side and see your brothers being there for you ready to go crazy in support,” said Millard.

Millard will not be on the block with his teammates at his next meet as he will be fighting for a spot on the podium at the NCAA Championships.

The regular season is over, and now the top swimmers including Millard will compete at the NCAA Championships Mar. 22-25. Meanwhile, the divers will compete in NCAA Zone Diving Mar. 6-8.