W. Swimming Loses Nailbiter to Yale, Comeback Falls Short

The Harvard women's swimming and diving team (5-3, 2-2 Ivy) faced some stiff competition from Yale last Friday at Blodgett Pool, losing the meet to the Elis 147-153.

Captain Kara Miller and sophomore Courtney Swain's first and second place finish in the 3-meter high-board with only two events left in the meet gave the Crimson a chance to pull ahead of Yale and win the meet.

However, a Crimson victory was not meant to be in this hard fought and nailbiting battle between, two good swimming teams.

The meet started off on a good note with sophomore Christen Deveney, senior Emily Buckley, junior Keiko Iwahara, and freshman Nancy Jo winning the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:48.96, a full three seconds ahead of the second place Elis.

However, the Elis won the next five swimming events and the Crimson quickly found themselves down 20 points before the 50 meter freestyle race and in desperate need of some first place finishes from its swimmers.

The Crimson's Jo and junior Sandie Stringfellow ended Harvard's downward slide with a tie for first in the 50 meter freestyle in a time of 24:88.

Harvard dominated this event with sophomore Jocelyn Ludwick taking third place also.

Miller continued Harvard's surge with a first place in the following event, the one meter dive, and the Crimson began whittling away its deficit.

"We came back quite a bit towards the end," Jo said.

Freshman Alexis Todor agreed. "Our team is better in the second half of a meet in general."

One factor that may have hurt the Crimson in its matchup against Yale, however, was its lack of depth. Yale did have eight or nine more swimmers than Harvard and this can make a big difference in a swimming meet.

But on a positive note, the Crimson freshmen also continued to do well throughout the meet, with Todor claiming Harvard's next victory with a first place finish in the 200 breast-stroke with a time of 2:21.42.

With only four events remaining things began heating up. The Crimson needed a dominant showing in all of their final races to secure a victory. Junior Keiko Iwahara answered the call by swimming to a first place finish in the 100 butterfly. Iwahara's time of 56.99 was a personal best for her.

Miller followed Iwahara's example by notching her second win in the meet in the 3-meter diving event.

"The diving went very well and we were pretty happy with how we did," said Miller.

Miller's win in the last diving event, the third to last event in the meet, gave the Crimson a boost but was not enough for a victory.

"It came down to the last two events," Buckley said. Unfortunately, the Crimson needed a first and second place in both events but only managed a first place finish in the final 400 relay free. The Crimson's final victory was a positive finish to the meet but still left it 6 points under Yale. It was a case of too little, too late.