Brown Can’t Shake M. Swimming

All season long, opponents of the Harvard men’s swimming team haven’t been able to stop its momentum. More recently, the 20-day hiatus for final exams couldn’t, either.

At the Smith Swim Center in Providence, R.I., the Harvard swimmers showed no signs of rust, picking up right where they had left off and handily defeating Brown (1-4, 1-4 EISL), 217.5-74.5.

The Crimson shook up its lineup, but still dominated the meet despite diverting swimmers from their traditional assignments.

Harvard (4-0, 3-0) won 11 of the day’s 14 events, including both the medley and freestyle relays.

Unlike previous meets in which a small group of four or five grabbed the top times for Harvard, eight different swimmers turned in first-place performances in nine individual events.

Only co-captain backstroker Dan Shevchik captured the top spot in multiple individual events. Shevchik took first in the 100-yard backstroke by 1.26 seconds and swam away with the 200-yard event, touching the wall 7.36 seconds ahead of the pack and leading a Harvard sweep of the top three positions.

Despite these victories, Shevchik remained unsatisfied with his performance.

“Personally, I struggled against Brown,” Shevchik said. “My times were a bit off from where I’d like them to be.”

The Crimson neutralized the Bears not just by taking first in the vast majority of the races, but by consistently shutting Brown out of scoring positions.

The Bears managed to capture just eight of 42 scoring spots, two of which came in events with only three swimmers.

Harvard, on the other hand, swept the top three positions in six events to secure the victory.

Junior Rassan Grant, the Crimson’s top breaststroker, competed only in the 100-yard breaststroke, while senior Mike Gentilucci won the 200.

Junior John Cole, Harvard’s preeminent long-distance freestyle swimmer, swam in the 100- and 200-yard butterflies rather than his typical races.

Freshman Billy Gray led the way in Cole’s traditional stomping grounds, taking the 1000-yard freestyle in 9:39.65.

“It’s a good thing to show our depth,” Gray said. “We have a lot of swimmers who didn’t do their number one events. To still place high at a competitive meet in their off-events is reassuring. Most of the events are deep with people that can back them up.”

Harvard returns to the waters of Blodgett Pool this weekend, squaring off in a tri-meet against Yale and Princeton.

“We’re trying to stay focused, and we certainly want to win in our own pool,” said junior James Lawler. “We want to avenge last year’s results.”

The Crimson will seek retribution against the Tigers in particular, as it was Princeton that stunned favored Harvard last year to capture the EISL title.

—John R. Hein contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.