M. Swimming Torpedoes Navy

It seems like the Navy isn't quite as good in the water as we might like it to be.

The Harvard men's swimming team continued its winning ways on Saturday afternoon, as the Crimson soundly defeated the Midshipmen 199-100 at Blodgett Pool. NAVY  100 HARVARD  199

In cruising past Navy, Harvard took first place in 11 of the 16 events at the meet--sweeping the top two places in four of them.

Captain Greg Wriede and junior Tim Martin led the way for the Crimson, each finishing first in two events.

"It was a really good meet for us as a team," Wriede said. "A couple of our guys had some really good swims, and we also had the `ironman,' which really brings the team together."

In the "ironman," one freshman from the team is designated to swim in every single event. The lucky swimmer this Saturday was Matt Wrenshall, and the team rallied behind him in his grueling day.

Aside from the "ironman," the Crimson had a good day in the pool, as Navy did not pose much of a challenge.

Wriede won the 200-meter backstroke with a time of 1:50.89, nearly a full second of sophomore teammate Michael Im, who placed third to complete a Harvard sweep of the top three places in the event.

Wriede also won the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:02.83. Sophomore Mike Groves and junior Brian Cadman finished in second and third place, respectively, giving the Crimson another sweep.

Martin, meanwhile, had little trouble dominating the rest of the field in the 1650-meter freestyle. His time of 15:27.08 was a full 53 seconds better than Navy's Tim Ray, who finished second. Freshman Ben Hanley finished just behind Ray in third for the Crimson.

Martin coasted in 500-meter freestyle as well, easily outpacing the field. He won the event with a time of 4:31.10, a full four seconds better than senior teammate Denis Sirringhaus. Sophomore Will Oren rounded out the top three for yet another Crimson sweep.

In the 50-meter freestyle senior Alex Kurmakov placed first with a time of 21.30 seconds, while junior Ben Rosen came in third for Harvard.

Co-captain John Samuel finished first in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 47.12 seconds, just one-hundredth of a second ahead of sophomore teammate Matt Fritsch.

In the 200-meter freestyle, sophomore Jamey Waters triumphed with a time of 1:41.38, while Kurmakov came in third.

Sophomore Dan Bazylewicz won the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 52.71 seconds, and freshman Charles Cromwell finished second.

The Crimson finished another sweep in the top three spots of the 200-meter butterfly event, with freshman Ryan Egan winning at a time of 1:51.85. Oren and junior Jan Sibbersen finished second and third, respectively.

The only events in which the Crimson failed to take the top spot were the one and three-meter diving events, and the 100 and 200-breaststroke events.

In one-meter diving, sophomore Greg Walker finished in second place 29 points out of first, while freshman Erik Frost took third in the three-meter events, just 11 points behind the leader.

The Harvard breaststrokers had a rough time on Saturday. In the 100-meter event, "ironman" Wrenshall placed second and senior Matt Krna was third, but both were over four seconds behind Navy's Peter Fehring.

The 200-meter breaststroke was a bit closer as Fehring finished just a second ahead of Harvard freshman Donald Blanchard. Cadman finished in third.

But Harvard did take the No. 1 result in both of the relay events on Saturday.

In the 200-meter freestyle relay, the Harvard team of Samuel, Kurmakov, Rosen and Waters won the race with a time of 1:23.94.

The Crimson squad of Wriede, Rosen, Im and Fritscsh squeaked out the 200-meter medley relay victory in 1:34.30, winning by just 18-hundredths of a second.

All in all, the meet was a sound success for Harvard, as it devastated an inferior Navy team. The Crimson hopes to build on the victory and now looks toward Brown.

"We definitely want to build on this meet as we head into the Brown meet," Wriede said. "We don't think that they can beat us, but they are definitely a much improved team from last year."