W. Swimming Dominates

After an up-and-down beginning to the season with a victory and a loss against Brown and Columbia respectively, the Harvard women's swimming and diving team came out roaring this weekend as it hosted and dominated the Harvard Invitational at Blodgett Pool.

Facing off against many of its northeastern rivals, the Crimson cruised to an easy victory, piling up 1419.5 points to the University of Massachusetts's (UMass) 848, New Hampshire's (UNH) 638, Northeastern's 472.5, Central Connecticut State's (CCSU) 294 and Simmons's 9.

Harvard was led by outstanding performances from upperclassmen such as junior Nancy Jo, who finished second in the 100 free with a time of 53.37, and was a member of the winning 800 free and 400 medley relay teams. But especially impressive and contributing heavily to the victory were the performances of the Crimson's freshman and sophomore women, who accounted for much of Harvard's winning margin.

Freshmen Liz Baxter, Tina Weiner, Janna McDougall and Sarah Murphy all turned in excellent meets as they consistently made up half of the Crimson's winning relay teams as well as performing well in their own individual races.

Weiner looked most impressive perhaps, as she took first in both the 1650 free and the 500 free with times of 17:19.26 and 5:03.21 respectively, as well as third in 400 individual medley (IM).

Fellow freshman Sarah Murphy also chimed in with a victory, as she placed first in the 100 fly with a time of 58.17, edging out UMass freshman Andrea Kazanjian by 0.19.

Also contributing to the winning effort, Baxter and McDougall consistently came up with top three finishes throughout the weekend.

McDougall notched second place finishes in the 50 free and the 200 free and came in third in 100 free. Baxter finished second in the 400 IM and third in both the 100 breast and 200 IM.

"The freshmen dug down deep all weekend long and performed really well," said tri-captain Christen Deveney. "They really came through throughout the entire meet and Tina [Weiner]'s win in the 500 capped it all off."

Not to be outdone, sophomore Angie Peluse also came through in her individual races. Peluse finished third in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:08.07 and fourth in the 100 backstroke with 1:00.42.

While all of Harvard's top swimmers were doing well, it was the Crimson's depth from top to bottom that eventually wore down its competitors.

Consistently placing the most swimmers in both the finals and the consolation heats, Harvard ate up points in the team score by the sheer number of quality swimmers on the team.

Even in events it did not win, Harvard usually accounted for four or five of the eight swimmers in the final heat as well as in the consolation finals, where points were still distributed.

If the swimming dominance was not enough, the Crimson divers did their part to secure Harvard as a team on the rise.

Harvard, led by sophomore Camila McLean, who finished second with a score of 503.20 in the one-meter diving competition, also placed divers in third, fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth, as it thoroughly destroyed the competition.

On the three-meter dive, the Crimson was just as good, as it placed every one of its divers in the finals.

"We dove really well this meet. We could improve a little on our consistency, but all in all it was a pretty good performance," said diving captain Courtney Swain.

After this weekend's excellent showing, the Crimson looks to continue to get better as it gets deeper into its Ivy schedule.

"It was a long and tiring weekend," Deveny said. "It was good that we were able to finish well and hang tough throughout."

"From here on out we just need to continue to work hard, and get into some really intensive training," she added.

By the looks of this weekend's performance, the thought of this team getting better should have the rest of the Ivy League swimmers shaking in their speedos.