W. Swimming Goes For Ivy Championship

For the 2001-2002 Harvard women’s swimming and diving team, success will be measured on three days of results at the end of February.

The Crimson (5-3, 4-3 Ivy) has maintained its focus on the Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships, which begin today and will continue through Saturday, since the beginning of the season. Trial heats will begin each day at 11 a.m., while finals in both swimming and diving start at 6 p.m.

Harvard’s Blodgett Pool will play host to the meet, and the Crimson is determined to put together a great performance in front of its fans.

“We have 20 athletes competing who will work together as a team to reach their highest level,” said Harvard Coach Steph Wreide Morawski ’92. “We have not won the conference meet since 1992 or been second since 1995. If the Harvard women swim and dive to their potential, then anything is possible.”

Leading the Crimson’s fight to capture its first conference championship in 10 years will be co-captain Janna McDougall, arguably Harvard’s most consistent performer over the past four seasons.

“I really would like to get best times,” McDougall said. “If I swim my best, I’ll break the school records in 50 and 100 freestyles and the 100 backstroke.”

McDougall is seeded third in the 50-yard freestyle and fifth in both the 100-yard backstroke and free. As she is also the Crimson’s powerhouse on four out of the five relays, McDougall’s performance will be key to Harvard’s effort to dethrone reigning Ivy champ Princeton.

Olympic trials qualifier sophomore Katie Wilbur, one of the Crimson’s most versatile swimmers, will lead Harvard’s middle distance group against strong squads from Penn, Yale, and Brown.

“This is the meet we have been working towards all year,” Wilbur said. “On paper, Princeton is the favorite with Harvard, Yale and Brown all an even second place. But not one member of our team is going to accept that as fact until all is said and done.”

Wilbur will hope to rake in the points with potential victories in the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys as well as in the 200-yard backstroke.

Going into today’s meet, the Crimson’s greatest strength is its core group of breaststrokers, lead by the meet’s No. 1 seed in the 100-yard breast, sophomore Erica De Benedetto, and junior Rachael O’Beirne and freshman Jelena Kristic.

“I want to contribute as much as I can to the team,” De Benedetto said. “As a team I think we are more prepared for this meet then we have been for any other meet. Everyone is very excited and once the meet starts, we will have many amazing swims and build momentum off of each one.”

Local fans will have to wait until Saturday night’s final session to see the most dominant swimmer in the league, sophomore butterflyer Kate Nadeau, vie for an individual title in the 200-yard fly. Nadeau has piled on the victories all season, including a win in the 200 at the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton double dual meet. She also finished fourth in the championships at this distance last year and is confident in her ability to improve on that result.

“I want to go into my races without fear and with love for the race,” Nadeau said.

The Crimson’s success will also hinge largely on its triumvirate of divers. Sophomore Renee Paradise and freshmen Anne Osmun and Coral Day-Davis will look to garner top honors against perennial favorites Princeton and Dartmouth.

“A great goal for the divers would be for all three of us to get back to finals at night,” Paradise said. “Then we could relax and dive on our own boards as well as we have in practice all year long at night.”

For Harvard’s divers to do so, each will have to earn a place in the top eight competitors following the afternoon’s preliminaries.

With paper-thin finishes a distinct possibility in the swimming portion of the meet, teams may indeed end up looking to their divers to provide their margin of victory.