Swimming Powers Invade Cambridge

Harvard's Blodgett Pool will be full of action this weekend as it continues to host the Harvard Swimming and Diving Invitational.

The Crimson are hosting the men's and women's swim teams from Florida, Boston University and Yale. Michigan's talented men's team is also competing.

Michigan will provide stiff competition as it enters this meet with the impressive number-one NCAA ranking.

It's no wonder the team is ranked so high with three former Olympians on the team. Michigan's sophomore Tom Dolan, Junior Royce Sharp and senior Gustavo Borges all competed in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

Florida should be able to hold its own in this meet as well. Both the Gator men's and women's teams hold a top-ten ranking.

Despite the hearty competition, Harvard men's coach Mike Chasson was pleased with his team's showing in last night's finals.

"The team's doing well. They've been racing well [of late]," Chasson said.

Coach Chasson was especially pleased with the performance of freshman Brian Younger. Younger captured second-place in the men's 500 freestyle, posting a personal best time of 4:26.07.

Harvard men fared well in other events as well. Senior co-captains Jan Esway and Tim Carver, senior Dave Heilman and sophomore Bryan Butts raced their way to a first-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay.

Harvard women's team entered this meet confidently, coming off a decisive victory over Brown and Columbia.

"We are using this meet as training," freshman Jennifer Marquardt explained. "We usually rest before meets, but we didn't rest before this one."

For not having rested, the Crimson women are doing well. Senior and co-captain Deborah Kory finished first in the 200 individual medley.

Harvard's 200 freestyle relay team of freshmen Keiko Iwahara and Sandie Stringfellow, junior Koerckel Laura and senior co-captain Kristan Gately made a strong second-place finish.

Summing up the team's performance, freshman Mary Naber said, "From the first cheer to the last race, Harvard set the pace for the meet."

Preliminaries start each morning at 10 a.m. and finals begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday and 4 p.m. on Sunday.