NEW YORK- Fourteen Columbia men swimmers will compete in the 2012 ECAC Swimming and Diving Open Championships this season. Sam Dunkle, Thomas Elling, William Falk-Wallace, Michael Fox-Moles, Philipp Gaissert, Kai Schultz, Taylor Seidel, John-Howard Sidman, Alex Smith, Daniel Tan, Mitchell Veith, Kent Yamada, Nathan Yueh and Kevin Zhai will head to Annapolis, Md. Friday, Febuary 24-26 to face over 20 teams.

"We have a very good chance of winning some events this year at ECAC's and I believe the people have the capability to do great things, " said Jim Bolster, Head Coach of Columbia Men's Swimming.

In the 2011 ECAC Championships, Columbia finished fifth overall out of 22 teams, scoring 308.5 points. The Lions have never finished higher than third at the ECAC's but Assistant Coach of Columbia men's swimming Gustavo Leal, feels the team has a chance to make history.

"Everybody has been working hard this year and if everyone swims like we know they can and how we expect them to swim we can definitely do well and even win some events this year, " said Leal.

Day one trails of the ECAC Champions will begin at 10am on Friday, February 24, followed by the finals at 6pm. Follow live results of the meet HERE.