Ryan Chiao, Senior Photographer

Yale’s swim and dive program will kick off their season with a showcase of intra-squad rivalry this family weekend. 

The Yale men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams will open their season at the Blue & White Exhibition on Friday, Oct. 7. The scrimmage will take place at the historic Robert J. H. Kiphuth Exhibition Pool in Payne Whitney Gymnasium, where two squads drawn from the roster will be pitted against each other in a friendly competition. It will overlap with Family Weekend — which runs from Friday, Oct. 7 to Sunday, Oct. 9. 

“No pressure, yet it’s also high pressure because of the parents here this weekend,” said diver Aidan Thomas ’25. “I need the pressure though. I haven’t felt it for almost seven months now, since March.”

Both the men’s and women’s teams will follow up the exhibition with a scrimmage against the University of Delaware on Oct. 22. Afterwards, they will kick off their Ivy League season at home against Brown on Nov. 4.

The competitive swimming and diving season runs from November through February, culminating with the Ivy League Championship in February and the NCAA Championship in March.

“The exhibition is more of a developmental thing — it’s supposed to give us a good idea of where we are, and where we need to be for the season,” said Thomas. 

The women’s team hopes to rekindle their form from last year’s regular season, which they ended with a perfect 9–0 record. 

Ancient Eight rival Harvard beat the Bulldog squad at the League Championship with the Blue and White finishing second overall. The team will be looking to get even this season in their bid to bring home their first Ivy League Championship since 2017.

The men’s swim and dive team also have much to look forward to this season. For one, they will be looking to build upon their 5–4 record, which placed them third in the Ivy League last season. 

The Bulldogs will also be keen to track the development of swimmer Noah Millard ’25, who drew the limelight last season for setting a new school record en route to a second-place finish in the 200 Freestyle at the Ivy League Championship. The Melbourne native finished off the season in the same mercurial vein, ranking 24 in the nation at the NCAA Championship. 

“I’m excited to see how strong we are after the preseason moving into competition, and to see how the strengths and weaknesses of this year’s team compare to last year’s,” said swimmer Ray Wipfli ’25. 

Debuting this weekend will be the Bulldogs’s new recruits, with the team on the lookout to see how they mesh in. Other fresh faces include two assistant swimming and diving coaches who joined the team over the summer. 

Coming from the University of Tennessee, Joey Reilman held his school record in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Returning to Yale, Dani Korman will be rejoining Bulldog coach Jim Henry’s staff after a stint at the University of California, Berkeley. Korman had previously spent three seasons, from 2012 to 2015, as an assistant women’s coach at Yale.

“We all really miss the seniors that graduated last year. They were great leaders of the team and I wish they didn’t have to go,” said diver Hayden Henderson ’25. “But I’m also super excited to see the freshmen compete this season. 2026 is a great class and they have a lot of potential. I think that we’re going to have a great year.”

Dive will begin the exhibition this weekend at 2 p.m. while swim will follow at 4 p.m.