Aquamen Dominate Lions, Midshipmen

For a meet against one of the Harvard men's swimming team's arch-rivals, the results were anticlimactic, but the Crimson isn't complaining.

As part of a 2-0 opening weekend sweep in EISL action, the Crimson stunned Columbia, 160-82, at Blodgett Saturday, before completing the whitewashing with a 153-88 trouncing of Navy Sunday.

This weekend marked the first time in four years that the Crimson has broken out to a 2-0 record, and Co-Captain Greg Tull sees no reason why Harvard can't rattle off a string of victories in this part of the season.

"We're obviously looking to extend the winning streak, and with Brown coming up, we're not going into the meet unprepared or cocky, but we should come out with a win," Tull said.

Although it's still early, the Crimson is excited about its unusually fast times for this stage of the season.

"Columbia had beaten us the past two years, so we were really fired up to break the string," Tull said.

"We knew that Navy was thinking ahead to Army next weekend, so we just took it to them," added Tull, who won the 100-meter freestyle and placed second in the 50 freestyle against Columbia, while winning both events against the Midshipmen.

The contributions of the freshmen swimmers were also pivotal, as they met the pressure of their first college meets.

Against Columbia, freshman Richard Ou won the 200-meter breaststroke and came in second in the 200-meter intermediate medley, while John Blaney took third in the 1000-meter freestyle.

Standout performances by yardlings against Navy included Ou's victory in the 200 IM, Sean Gouldsen's first-place showing in the 200-meter backstroke, Blaney's third-place finish in the 1000-meter freestyle, and Brent Lorenzen's third in the 200 breaststroke.

The Crimson was especially strong in the fly and backstroke events, taking advantage of the thin Columbia and Navy squads to dominate these events.

"Coming in, we knew that both opponents had decent sprinting squads, but were weak in the fly and back events," Tull said. "We were able to get a lot of points in these events, and this allowed us to open up a big lead."

Sophomore Simon Wainwright appears to be in midseason form already, as he raced to within one second of his personal best in the 200-meter butterfly against Columbia at 1:53.44. Wainwright also took first against Navy.

Harvard's divers didn't perform up to pre-season expectations, but still managed to dominate both the 1-meter and 3-meter events against the overmatched Lions and Midshipmen.

"We didn't dive as well as we did in practice, but for the first meet, we picked up the points, and that's what counts," freshman Rich Beukema said.

The Crimson divers were able to pick up 23 out of 38 possible points against Navy, while Harvard amassed 30 points against Columbia.

After the Brown meet, the Crimson travels to West Point, N.Y., to take on Army December 7. Over reading period, Harvard will travel to Fort Myers, Fla., to train for nine days.