W. Swimming Zaps Big Green, Sickness

The Harvard women's swimming team is on a roll, and even a dose of fatigue and sickness wasn't able to slow it down Friday.

With the whole squad tired from a grueling few weeks and several swimmers racing despite suffering from the campus-wide illness, Harvard crushed Dartmouth, 182-118, up in Hanover, N.H. Not only did the Crimson wallop the Big Green, several Harvard swimmers also broke pool records.

"We're in the middle of a tough time," senior co-captain Kristan Gately said. "Dartmouth isn't one of the best teams in the league, so we weren't too worried."

The Crimson especially dominated the freestyle events. Junior Grets Steffenson set pool marks in the 500- and 1000-yard freestyle races in addition to swimming in a record-breaking medley event, while Gately broke the marks in the 100- and 400-yard freestyle events.

"That's like an extra bonus," Gately said.

While the score might indicate that Harvard swam laps around Dartmouth, the meet was closer than one might expect.

The Crimson was coming off its huge victory over national power-house Florida in last week's Harvard Invitational, and its usual resting period was replaced this season by extra training sessions. The fatigue showed in a lot of swimmers' performances, but it wasn't enough of a factor to tip the scales in Dartmouth's favor.

"I swam very poorly," said a modest senior co-captain Deborah Kory, who herself set a pool record in the 200-yard individual medley. "Dartmouth generally doesn't pose too much of a problem."

As for the mysterious epidemic, several freshman swimmers checked into UHS last week, but they felt better Friday and decided to make the trip and compete.

Their times were also slower than what they had hoped, but their times were more than enough to ensure Harvard's victory.

"We're pretty satisfied," freshman backstroker Stephanie Lawrence said. "I was feeling a lot better Friday morning, but after the first race, however, it seemed like that wasn't the best idea."

Regardless of fatigue, viruses, finals and whatever other hardships the Crimson has or will face, Harvard will take the easy victory and fly out to California for a meet with the University of California at Berkeley on Thursday. Harvard will then travel to Hawaii for some more training in addition to meets with Hawaii and Michigan.

The Crimson's next home meet will be January 12 against arch-rival Yale.

If Harvard could demolish Dartmouth at a fraction of its strength, other teams ought to take notice if they haven't done so already.

"This is the best team that we've had since my freshman year," Kory said. "All the people back [this year] are swimming well, and we've got a good group of freshmen who are stepping up." Harvard  182 Dartmouth  118