Women's Swimming Capsizes Bears

It was Miller time at Blodgett Pool yesterday, as the Harvard women's swimming team blew past Brown, 160- 140, and opened the season 2-0 in the Ivy League.

Senior swimmer Caroline Miller won three events and junior diver Kara Miller captured two to lead the Crimson in its second victory of the weekend.

Friday, Harvard blew by Columbia 142-82 in the season opener to reclaim its position stop the Ivy League in a quest for a second consecutive league title.

The Crimson took the lead early yesterday against the Bears, and lost it only for a moment when it trailed Brown 115-14 after the 500-meter freestyle. But Caroline Miller's (57.80 seconds) and sophomore Mary Naber's (58.16) one-two finish in the 100-meter butterfly put Harvard up for good.

"It was unbelievable," Harvard coach Maura Costin Scalise said. "The times here for both teams were very, very fast for this time in the season, and our team just raced really well.

In addition to the 100-meter butterfly, Caroline Miller also touched first in the 200-meter butterfly (207.07) and the 200-meter individual medley (209.25).

Junior Jennifer Steffen also put in a notable effort for the Crimson, taking first place in the 200-meter freestyle (154.89), second in the 100-meter freestyle (53.66) and third in the 500-meter freestyle (509.72).

"We had a lot of people who swam strongly, who swam in two or three races and did really well in all of them," co-captain Laura Koerckel said. "I think that everyone kept stepping up for every race--doing really well again and again.

Among these notable performers were sophomore Keiko Iwahara and freshman Christen Deveny, Iwahars won the 50-meter freestyle (24.39) and finished fourth in the 100- meter butterfly (58.32). Deveny gave Harvard points with second-place finishes in the 100-and 200-meter backstroke with times of 58.86 and 205.86, respectively.

Kara Miller captured both the one and three meter diving events for the Crimson. She just edged teammate freshman Courtney Swain 255.75 to 254.47 in the one-meter event but captured the three meters convincingly, scoring 273.60 points. Swain, again the second place finisher, tallied 267.68.

The opening victory against Columbia was just as sweet but definitely less of a contest. Harvard's 60-point margin of victory seems impressive itself but the score was deceptive. The Crimson didn't race full strength.

"Columbia was a different type of meet from Brown," Scalise said. "Everyone swam one of their better events and an off event."

Even so, the Crimson could only be described as impressive. In a meet without diving events, the Lions only touched the wall first in one race, the 400-meter individual medley.

Harvard opened with a victory in the day's first event, the 400-meter medley relay. The team of junior Katie Liu, co-captain Sarah Durkin, sophomore Mary Naber and Koerckel finished in 4.04.88, more than six seconds ahead of the second-place team.

Sophomore Sandie Stringfellow scored first-place points the 50-meter freestyle (25.15), the 100-meter freestyle (54.45), and the 200 meter freestyle relay (138.37). Herteammates on the relay teammates were Caroline Miller, Iwahara and Steffen.

Steffen also won the 500-meter freestyle (5:12.05). Naber, Durkin, Deveny and freshman Heather Lindman also captured races for the Crimson.

Naber took the 200-meter butterfly (2:08.95). Durkin captured the 200-meter breaststroke (2:28.99). Lindman won the 200-meter freestyle (1:56.85). Deveny touched first in the 200 meter backstroke (2:07.40).

The team got all that it was looking for out of this week's victories.

"Brown seems to be one of the better teams in the league, and when you have tough races in every event, everyone has to be on," Scalise said. "We had everyone on today."

And today's strong showing leaves the Crimson optimistic about the rest of the season.

"We knew this was going to be a tight meet and that we were going to have to swim to the top of our ability, and we did" Koerckel said. "I don't think there's any reason why we won't continue to do that for the rest of the season."

The Crimson next swim against Florida and Virginia at the Harvard Invitational on December 2 and 3. Its toughest Ivy League competition will come after the winter break. Harvard travels to Yale on January 12 and hosts Princeton February 3. Brown  140 Harvard  160