Women Sink B.U.

The Harvard women's swim team invited their counterparts at Boston University for a little happy-hour cheer on Friday afternoon at the Blodgett pool.

The Crimson swimmers, however, were the only ones cheering as they drowned the Terriers, 177-88. The victory improved Harvard's overall record to 7-1, while B.U. fell to 4-2.

The crowd of 40 clothed spectators, as well as the scantily clad men's team, witnessed outstanding individual performances from Mia Costello and Jenny Meyer.

Costello hardly faced any challenges in either the 100 or 200-yd breaststroke. She also snagged a strong third in the 200-yd freestyle and shared in the triumphs of the 200-yd medley and the 400-yd free relay.

"I was very happy with my times since I had swum so many events in the meet," Costello said. "If you're able to swim well against the clock, it will help your performance against the better swimmers."

Later this year, Costello will face those better swimmers, as she has already qualified for NCAA competition and the Olympic trials.

Meyer never trailed in the marathon 1000-yd freestyle, having lapped her nearest B.U. opponent just after the half-way mark. Her time of 10:19.95, barely a second off the pool record, is even more astounding since the 1000 is not Meyer's usual event.

The sophomore speedster also outsprinted teammate Valerie Nellen in the final strokes of the 200-yd butterfly. Meyer snared the event in 2:08.6

While there was little suspense in the meet as a whole, individual drama was provided in the sprint-freestyle rivalry between Terrier senior Sybil Smith and Harvard junior Linda Suhs.

Smith, who won the Eastern championships in both the 50 and 100-m last year's was matched stroke for stroke by Suhs. In the end, though, it was the champion Smith who touched first in both events.

"Linda had a great showing against Sybil," Harvard Coach Mora Costin Scalise said. "All of our sprinters are broken down after the Christmas training trip [to Palm Springs] and the practices during Reading Period. I think that Linda will beat Sybil in the Easterns."

Other individual victors for the aquawomen included Janice Sweester in the 200-yd freestyle, Kaari Reierson in the 200-yd backstroke, and Anne Hardy who edged out Meyer in the gruellng 500-yd freestyle. Karen Schneider rounded. out the Crimson victory parade with a first in the 200-yd individual medley.

The Harvard quartet of Sheila Findley, Costello, Mary Quinn, and Suhs opened the afternoon with an uncontested first in the medley relay. In the final event, Costello returned with Maisha Moses, Jill Hutchinson, and Sweester to win the 400-yd free realy. B.U., however, was awarded the points as the Crimson entered the winners as exhibition.

"This was a great meet for us," Scalise said. "All of our work from Christmas showed in the results, and they didn't seem as tired as I expected."