Aquawomen Go for Third at Ivy Finals

PROVIDENCE--There isn't a whole lot that can be said about the aesthetically pleasing aspects of Brown--a university that seems to live up to its name--but then the Harvard women's swim team didn't travel to fair Rhode Island yesterday to go sightseeing.

The Smith Swimming Center will probably be the only attraction the Crimson and seven other Ivy League teams will catch a glimpse of this weekend during the fifth annual Women's Ivy League Swim Championships--a meet that promises to produce excellent performances and hotly contested honors in three days of competition.

Princeton University--last year's champion by almost 400' points--will be challenged by a rejuvenated, freshman-laden Brown squad attempting to recapture first place honors. This weekend Brown, which finished second last year, defeated Princeton by the narrowest of margins in a dual meet confrontation two weeks ago, and now boasts the best win-loss record in the Ivy League.

The Crimson is looking to finish this year in what coach Vicki Hays calls "a solid third place"--the same final standing as last year. Despite the Crimson's surprise drubbing in its final dual meet of the season by a scanty Yale squad last week, Hays predicts that her team's overwhelming depth will allow it to out-score the eight-woman Eli flotilla.

"I foresee about fifty per cent of our swims this weekend being lifetime bests," Hays said yesterday, adding that she expects even more stellar swims in two weeks at the Eastern Seaboard Championships from the swimmers who have qualified for that meet.

"Our problem is the timing of the meets--if the Easterns were next weekend, I would say that the times would be super-fast here. But as it is, people like Jeannie Floyd and Debbie Zimic aren't fully tapered," Hays said.

Some of the best showdowns of the meet will occur in the distance 300 freestyle events between Brown's Carol Downey, Princeton's Liz Richardson and Karen Weisel, Yale's Courtney Ellis, and Harvard's Jeanne Floyd and Maureen Gilday.

Floyd--who lost the 1000 but won the 500 against Ellis last weekend--is seeded fourth in the 500 yard freestyle and could conceivably win if pushed hard enough. Gilday will be swimming on Sunday as the fifth seed in the 1650--an event in which she holds the Ivy and meet records.

Sophomore butterfly ace Kathleen "Mad Mac" McCloskey is the highest seeded Harvard swimmer--holding a first place ranking in the 200 yard butterfly. Placed second in the 100 and fifth in the 50 yard contests, McClosky will be pressed by Laura Reynolds of Brown and Sharon Vietz of Yale in her attempt to take all three events.

Freshman Debbie Zimic is another star who will probably shine this weekend in her five events. Because of her versatility and power in all four strokes, Zimic's best hopes lie in the 200 and 400 yard individual medley--events in which she holds a fourth place seeding.

Divers Adriana Holy, Pam Stone, and Cathy Josman will be competing against a strong field including Princeton's outstanding performers Mary Limcer and Chris Moses. Stone and Holy just returned from a meet at Pittsburgh last weekend where Stone missed qualifying for the AIAW nationals by just two points on the three meter boards.