Aquamen Break Tigers' Domination of Easterns

The Harvard Men's Swimming Team scored a dramatic come-from-behind victory to take first place in the three-day Men's Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) Championship, which ended Tuesday night, in the DeNunzio Pool of Princeton University, in Princeton, N.J.

Harvard's victory in the Easterns broke the Tigers' five year stranglehold on the title and gave the Crimson its first title since 1986.

Going into the third day of the competition, Harvard was down 25 points to its Ivy archrival Princeton.

But the Crimson dominated the final day and won with 694 points while second place Princeton could garner only 662.

Inspired by Harvard Coach Mike Chasson pep talk on the eve of the last day of competition, the Crimson swept the second event of the day, the 200-yard backstroke. Led by the performance of senior Co-Captain Tom Peterson who registered a 1:44.73 to win the event, Harvard also took second through fourth and eighth in the event.

The backstroke set the tone for the rest of the meet, as Harvard went on to take first and second in the 200-yard butterfly, followed by a surprising first place in the 200-yard breaststroke courtesy of sophomore Richard Ou's who swam a career-best 2:00.56.

Ou's dominating swim all but assured Harvard of the victory.

"The coach called us in Monday night and told us our situation," Peterson said. "He basically told us to just pick a Princeton swimmer in each event and beat him."

Peterson credited the Crimson's success to the team's tremendous depth.

"In a championship format, the fifth, sixth, and seventh swimmers are extremely important, and luckily we have extraordinary depth," Peterson said.

Peterson Leads the Way

Although Peterson gives credit to depth, Harvard would have been lost without his tremendous individual effort.

Peterson swam the 500-yard freestyle, 400-yard individual medley, and the 200-yard backstroke, capturing first in all three individual events, making him the overall individual high scorer in the competition.

Peterson also broke DeNunzio pool records and the meet records in all three events, as well as breaking Harvard records in the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke.

These outstanding performances have earned him spots in the NCAA championships, including a second seed in the 400-yard individual medley.

"The EISL championship has been the focal points of our entire season," Peterson said. "Now that we've accomplished our goal we're looking forward to making a name for Harvard in the NCAAs"

No Walk in the Park

Although Harvard rolled to an easy victory on the final day of the competition, this meet was not without excitement.

The Crimson's 200-yard freestyle relay team which was predicted to finish in the top five, was disqualified for a false-start. Since it was only the second event of the meet, this put the Crimson into an immediate deficit.

"There was a moment there when we all felt pretty scared about being 30 points down, but we realized that this type of thing happens all the time, and we were able to get refocused," Senior Co-Captain Chris Kovacs said.

Happy Ending for Seniors

Harvard was obviously undaunted by the disqualification as it went on to take first, fourth, seventh, eighth, and eleventh in the following event, the 500-yard freestyle.

"After we did so well in the 500 free, we knew were right back in the competition," Kovacs said.

Other outstanding performances were put in by sophomore Craig Narveson who took first in both the one meter and the three meter diving competition, thereby winning the meet's high point award, sophomore Sean Gouldson who took second in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke, and freshman Tim Carver who took third in both the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke.

The victory represented the ultimate dream for the team's seniors, who had fallen to Princeton in the EISL Championship for the past three years.

"We were very confident going into the meet," senior Don Kidd said. "We knew we had a better shot of winning than any other year. Once we realized we'd done it, the excitement level was unbelievable. All of our

Final Standings (Top Ten Only) Harvard  694 Princeton  662 Yale  484 Columbia  342 Cornell  262 Navy  217 Brown  181 Penn  180 LaSalle  168 Dartmouth  166