Harvard Swimmers Split Meets With Princeton at Blodgett

Even in swimming, the individual battles aren't as important as the war.

On Saturday afternoon, the Harvard women's swim team faced a strong Princeton squad at Blodgett Pool in front of 150 spectators. And though the Tigers won the majority of the races, the Crimson still emerged with a sizable margin of victory, 152-116.

The victory raised Harvard's record to 8-1 overall, 5-0 Ivy, while the Tigers fell to 3-4.

The Crimson lead, which the women protected from the start, was the result of an overwhelming proportion of second and third place finishes. Out of 16 events, Harvard snagged only seven wins, but it garnered 11 second and third-place finishes apiece.

"My team saw just how much depth they have," Harvard Coach Maura Costin Scalise said. "We usually win the close races, but today we lost. It opens our eyes when we swim against fast swimmers."

Mia Costello put forth another unrivalled performance, leading the Crimson with two individual victories and a triumph in the 200-yd. medley relay. The sophomore retained her stranglehold on the breastroke events, capturing the 100-yd. in 1:05.27 and snagging the 200-yd. in 2:21.61.

"I was happy with my medley split time [of:48.90]," Bird said, "but the whole team couldhave swum a little bit better."

Jaffe astounded the crowd with a record-settingperformance in the 200-yd. freestyle, a stronganchor-leg in the 400-yd. freestyle relay, and arespectable second in the 500-yd. freestyle.

The yardling's time of 1:36.72 in the 200-yd.freestyle established a new Harvard record as wellas qualifying him for NCAA competition. The oldrecord was set by Bobby Hackett in 1981 and,fittingly, Hackett was present Saturday to see histime surpassed