W. Swimming Expects To Challenge For Ivy Silver

After months of preparation, it's time for final exams even though it's only late February. This weekend the women's swimming and diving team (7-3, 5-2 Ivy) will earn its final grade heading into the Ivy Championships at Princeton.

Finishing the dual-meet season with the third-best record in the conference, the Crimson has set its sights on finishing at least that high at Ivies.

"We want everyone to score, and personal bests are always a goal," said junior Nancy Jo. "As a team we're expected to get third right now, but we're focusing on taking down Princeton."

With Brown firmly established as this weekend's favorite, the battle seems to be developing over the second-through fourth-place spots between Harvard, Yale and Princeton.

Harvard lost its Nov. 20 meet at Brown by a 185-113 final and split at H-Y-Ps three weeks ago, beating Yale 157-143 but dropping to Princeton, 189-111.

Harvard has several advantages working in its favor over these two foes going into the competition.

"The other teams have already shaved in December," said junior Ana Cenanovic. "So, we should be able to muster bigger time drops.

"At this point, our team is the underdog because no one has seen us at our peak this season. Hopefully our time drops will act like a blitzkrieg to wipe out the Tigers."

Rather than shaving for a meet earlier this year, the Crimson has maintained its commitment to the Ivy Championships by training through each dual meet and invitational.

"Our plan is to go into the meet and focus on our own performances," Cenanovic said. "Hopefully we can just let all of our hard work pay off."

Keeping their focus may be problematic for the Crimson, as the meet is being held at the notoriously inhospitable DeNunzio Pool at Princeton.

Traditionally, the Tiger fans hold nothing back in their attempts to intimidate the competitors, with parents even being known to wear "Harvard Sucks" shirts.

"I usually know what to expect going into each meet," said freshman Liz Baxter, "But Ivies is a whole new experience."

"From what I've heard, the pool environment can be pretty hostile. We're going to be walking into a sea of orange and black."

Harvard's plan is deliciously simple: it only wants to race.

"There's really nothing to it," said co-captain Jocelyn Ludwick. "We need to get up and swim. Our potential meets up well with our goals."

"Now all we need to do is go out and earn it. And I'm confident we can do that. We're ready to just live swimming until Sunday; we've got the work out of the way and all we want now is to get on our plane," she said.

Perhaps the biggest factor working against the Crimson is the widespread flu epidemic that has overtaken Blodgett Pool.

"A lot of us have been really sick over the last couple of weeks," said Jo, who is herself recovering. "That's always going to be a big concern, but we've adjusted our last-minute training well to compensate for it."

Certainly a big improvement over the last few years for Harvard is its strong presence in every event rather than a limited few.

"Really, we have people who should final in each event," Baxter said. "But specifically, our butterfliers have been swimming incredibly thus far this season, and they should be a huge asset."

The butterfly events will definitely generate major points for Harvard, with freshman Sarah Murphy and sophomore Pia Chock coming off of an emotional one-two finish over both Yale and Princeton in the 100-yard distance.

Another area the Crimson should be strong in is the distance events.

After not having a single swimmer entered in the mile at last year's meet, Harvard has fielded three of the top ten entries for this weekend, with freshmen Tina Weiner and Rebekah Lorenz, along with junior Adrienne Leight, all expected to final.

"Even though we didn't have anyone swimming in the mile last year, we are confident in our training from this season," Weiner said. "I think we are ready to show the other Ivy programs that our distance group is going to be a force to be reckoned with. We won't be shying away from races with Brown and Princeton swimmers."

On the other side of the spectrum, Harvard's sprinters also look to improve on last year's finishes.

"Our relays are better than they've been in the past also," Baxter said. "They should be big factors for us."

The freshman class has certainly played a big role in that improvement, as Janna McDougall, Murphy, and Baxter will all help Harvard's relay efforts.

Not to mention Jo and fellow junior Corie Calfee, who will both add tremendous depth to the Crimson attack with the amazing versatility that placed each of them in three finals last year.

Baxter will also be one of the forces to be reckoned with in the breaststroke events, along with perennial breaststroke finalist junior Alexis Todor and sophomore Karen Milkosky, who is coming off of a great performance at H-Y-Ps.

The H-Y-P match-up of a few weeks ago proved to be a milestone for the Crimson divers as well.

"After H-Y-P, we realized that the Princeton divers can be beat," said sophomore Camila McLean, who finished third last year on the one-meter board. "All three of us can final, and we have a legitimate chance to win. It can be done!"

After co-captain Courtney Swain beat out Princeton's freshman phenomenon Erin Lutz in the three-meter event at H-Y-Ps, the hundreds of points scored last year by the Tigers in the two diving events could be only a thing of the past.

And one can never count out the Crimson in the backstroke events with co-captain Christen Deveney, sophomore Angie Peluse, Cenanovic and McDougall.

With this depth, the Crimson will have its chance to avenge the loss it suffered at the hands of the Tigers only a few weeks ago, and possibly capture the runner-up position at Ivies.

The team will know by tonight a little about that hope, since the meet begins today and lasts until Saturday.