Aquawomen Race to Second

The Harvard women's swimming team cruised into second place after the first day of the Harvard Invitational at Blodgett Pool.

The Crimson now trails first-place Georgia, 167-134, but holds a slim three-point lead over Kansas. Arkansas is in fourth place with 85 points. Brown (48), Air Force (35) and Boston University (16) trail.

In the men's competition, Harvard struggled to total 58 points and now stands in fourth place out of six teams. Kansas dominated the first day, holding a commanding 237-142 lead over Georgia. Air Force is third with 66. Arkansas (53) and Boston University (34) round out the competition.

The aquawomen had their best moments in the relays, finishing third in the 400-yd. medley relay and second in the most exciting race of the day, the 400-yd. freestyle relay. In that race, Georgia led by over a second with one leg to go. Harvard Co-Captain Linda Suhs swam a blistering anchor leg of 51.67, but her valiant comeback fell short, as the Georgia swimmer out-touched her by .47 seconds.

In the 50-yd. freestyle, the Crimson qualified three swimmers for the final. Nina Anderson shaved .16 seconds off her trial time to take second in 23.83. Suhs finished fourth, and Jill Hutchinson took sixth.

Janice Sweetser took fourth in the 500-yd. freestyle with a time of 4:56.33, just beating out teammate Stacie Duncan, who posted a time of 4:56.61. Anne Koerckel took fifth in the 200-yd individual medley, ahead of teammates Nicole Engh and Stephanie Wriede, who finished sixth and eighth, respectively.

Lisa Pierce took third place in the one-meter diving competition.

Good showings in the morning trials led to high expectations in the afternoon for the Crimson. But only four of eleven swimmers bettered their qualifying times.

The aquamen were on rough seas, managing only to qualify one swimmer for any of the three championship finals. Freshman Kevin Williams took sixth in the 500-yd. freestyle in 4:37.44.

In consolation finals, Ken Johnson finished a strong second in the 500-yd. freestyle, and Co-Captain Keith Kaplan took fourth in the 50-yd. freestyle. In the 200-yd. individual medley, Paul Watson and Chris Kovacs took sixth and seventh, respectively.

The top Crimson relay teams finished fourth in the freestyle and fifth in the medley relay.

The meet continues today and tomorrow, with championship finals scheduled for 6 p.m. tonight and 4 p.m. Sunday.