W. Swimming Coasts Past Ivy Foes

By PETER D. HENNINGER and CATHY H. TRAN

CRIMSON STAFF WRITERs

The Harvard’s women’s swimming and diving team knocked off two more Ivy opponents this weekend, outpacing Columbia and Penn on Sunday at Blodgett Pool.

The Crimson (4-1 Ivy) smoked the Lions, 214-90, and squeaked by the Quakers, 156-144.

“Our team swam fairly well this weekend, considering that we had had a tough week of training after a long week after the U.S. Open,” co-captain Janna McDougall said. “Penn was well-rested, shaved and ready to go. I’m really proud of my team for sticking with it when we were down.”

After losing a tight dual meet with Brown on Nov. 16 and placing behind Brown and just ahead of Princeton at last weekend’s U.S. Open in East Meadow, N.Y., the Crimson’s early results suggest that the race for the Ivy title is still up for grabs.

Harvard has one more double-dual meet at Yale with Princeton in early February.

“Princeton and Brown are still on top of the league,” McDougall said. “It’s a toss-up. The league is generally getting faster. Penn has a lot of good swimmers but not much depth. We’re definitely up there.”

And it seems that throughout the team, the Crimson has a pretty good understanding of what it will take to win the title.

“Princeton is going to be tough,” junior Anna Fraser said. “At the actual Ivies, it will be a good race between Princeton, Brown and us for the title.”

The Crimson did not dominate the Sunday’s standings as it did against Cornell and Dartmouth, but Harvard showed off its depth by continually placing swimmers and divers at or near the top in each event.

The day began well for the Harvard, as the team of McDougall, Fraser and freshmen Jelena Kristic and Allison Bates took the 200-meter medley by more than a second in a time of 1:46.20.

“The race was great,” Fraser said. “Everyone swam well and it was a really good time for each of us.”

The top Penn team touched in next at 1:47.82.

Penn next took the top spots in the 1000-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard breaststroke, but Harvard swimmers placed just behind their Quaker counterparts.

Freshman Emily Stapleton touched in at 59.04 in the 100-yard backstroke, good for second place behind Penn’s Katie Frazee.

The points continued to pile up as Kristic and Rachael O’Beirne next went two-three in the 100-yard breaststroke. Kristic’s time of 1:05.25 was just one hundreth of a second short of Penn’s Jennifer Block. O’Beirne’s time was just .17 seconds off the winning time.

Sophomore Kate Nadeau grabbed second in the 200-yard butterfly in a time of 2:04.86.

McDougall got the Crimson’s first win in an individual event when she clocked in at 23.76 in the 50-yard freestyle.

After sophomore Renee Paradise and freshman Anne Osmun went two-three on the one-meter board, McDougall was back in the water to take second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time 51.76.

Penn took two of the next three events, but Stapleton and sophomore Abbie Davies went two-three in the 200-yard backstroke.

O’Beirne continued to be a big contributor to the Crimson’s bottom line. She took first in the 200-yard breaststroke.

With the the Crimson and the Quakers trading points, Harvard needed a breakthrough performance. The 100-yard butterfly would be just what the team needed. Fraser took first in 57.56 followed directly by Bates in 58.39.

“The 100 fly was a really big event for us,” McDougal said. “We got first and second in pretty quick times, so that was exciting.”

While each win adds points to the team’s final standing, the win was espcially sweet for Fraser.

“I knew I had a pretty good race, I felt strong throughout it,” she said. “I was very determined because I was out last season with a shoulder injury. It was an overall sense of determination.”

Columbia took first on the 3-meter board, but Harvard again was able to place a diver in th top three, as Osmun took second.

Sophomore Katie Wilbur took first in the 400-yard individual medley, the day’s last individual event, in a time of 4:29.90.

Freshman Molly Ward, Nadeau, McDougall and Fraser took second behind a Penn team in the day’s last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.

The Crimson now has nearly a month off from competition, but will be training for much of the holiday break. The swimmers travel to the Bahamas and the divers are off to sunny Acapulco for over a week of intense practice.

“We’re going to the Bahamas for a training trip, so it will be a good opportunity to train hard and get good, hard work in,” McDougall said. “Training trips prove to be a time when the team gells and the new freshmen become more integrated into the mix.”

The Crimson is next in action on Jan. 5 when it travels to Pittsburgh.