Yale Athletics

The Yale swim and dive seasons are heating up.

The divers are traveling to West Virginia The USA Winter Diving Nationals — set to take place Dec. 14-18 at the Aquatic Center at Mylan Park. The swim and dive team also competed at the meet against Southern Connecticut State University yesterday, scoring one last victory in their final meet of 2022.

“The idea is to go and perform in a high-intensity environment that resembles what we’ll experience in our championship meet, hopefully giving us an advantage when the time finally comes to take on our rivals in the Ivy League,” said Ray Wipfli ’25.

The competition is an opportunity for the team to compete against the best divers around the country in preparation for the Ivy league championships later in the winter.

“Placements at this meet won’t be important,” according to Wipfli. “We’ll be looking to capitalize on some of the improvements we’ve been making in practice and hopefully walk out of there feeling just a little more confident.”

Fellow diver Aidan Thomas ’25 has “high hopes” because he knows that all of the team’s divers are strong individually. He has been putting effort into improving his weakest dives for the national event and the rest of the season.

Wipfli saw yesterday’s meet against SSCU as a “great opportunity to get qualifying scores for NCAA Zones and to get more competition experience.”

To help secure their victory, diver Nicholas Chau ’26 won the 1-meter event, and Wipfli was the 3-meter winner.

This meet came after a close defeat against Columbia’s strong team. Wipfli said, however, that he is confident they can “flip the script” when Ivy Championships come along.

“Ultimately, that loss is only going to make us work harder for the rest of the season,” Wipfli said.

The team will take a training trip to Puerto Rico over winter recess to prepare for their upcoming meets against the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Cornell University, Harvard University and Princeton University.

Swimmer Noah Millard ’25 is “excited” for the momentum that mid-season competitions have brought the team, he said.

The swim team so far has reached four new team records: Noah Millard 500 Free 4:14.65, Alex Deng 100 Breast 53.81, Joe Page, Alex Deng, Connor Lee, Noah Millard 400 Medley Relay 3:11.22, Jessey Li 100 Breast 1:00.11.

Millard enjoys swimming against teams outside of the Ivy League, like SCSU yesterday, since it allows swimmers to try events they don’t usually compete in. For example, some of their freestylers will swim butterfly, while some sprinters will race longer distances.

Millard set a pool record in the 400 individual medley yesterday.

In Puerto Rico, Millard hopes “to get a solid block of training without any external distraction,” he told the News. The team will also spend some quality time bonding, sightseeing, and experiencing what the seniors on the team have talked highly about, having been on the trip in the past.

Once returning from break, the team will start facing the Ivies one by one until the Ivy League Championships in late February.