Synchronized Swimming

Narrowly trailing Brown heading into the final stretch of the Ivy Championship meet, the Harvard women’s swimming and diving team needed points badly last Saturday.

With each team qualifying approximately the same number of swimmers for final heats, the race for second place seemed headed for a photo finish.

The conclusion was indeed close, but it was not what the Crimson and its furry rivals expected.

As the meet hung in the balance, freshman Michelle Bright and sophomore Emily Stapleton sliced through the water, distancing themselves from their opponents in the 200-yd. backstroke final but unable to shake one another.

Clearing the flags on their way into the wall, the two backstrokers were locked in a dead heat.

“Michelle and I have been training together all season and usually she’s out a little ahead of me,” Stapleton said. “I knew I had a little bit on her at the 150, but at the last five yards, she gained on me with such speed. I didn’t really know what was going to happen.”

After touching the pad, each looked to the electronic scoreboard for confirmation of her victory.

Remarkably, both found they finished in 2:00.51.

“It never happens,” Bright said. “It’s luck that we touched at the same time.”

Though it may have been coincidence that the duo hit the wall in sync, their combined efforts all season long set up the dramatic finish.

“It’s really exciting for us, and it’s a testament to our attitude during the season,” Stapleton said. “That was really important for us—to work as a team by feeding off of each other.”

Each was driven by the other’s efforts all weekend long, as the two were virtually inseparable between the lanes. In the 100-yd. backstroke the day before, the two had nearly finished in a tie as well. Bright just edged out her partner for a seventh place finish by 0.02 seconds.

For the Crimson, the tandem’s effort could not have come at a better time.

Holding a narrow lead over the Bears headed into the meet’s final day, Harvard had fallen behind Brown in the evening’s first race and needed to get back on track. With three Crimson swimmers and two Bears competing in the final eight, the race held the potential to shift the momentum back to Harvard or to strengthen Brown’s fledgling lead.

“It never really affected us,” Bright said. “We expected to get better and to close the gap to pass Brown.”

Bright and Stapleton had reason to be confident. Only hours before, Bright had set the team record for the 200-yd. backstroke—2:00.17—with Stapleton right behind.

Capturing 37 points between the two of them, Bright and Stapleton ensured that the Crimson would not be denied a spot in the top two yet again.

“We needed to get the adrenaline going,” Stapleton said. “We knew that there was a little bit of pressure to score early.”

With the points from sophomore Molly Brethauer’s fifth place finish, Harvard totaled 51 points in the race—28 more than the Bears—and reclaimed the lead and the momentum, never looking back.

—TIMOTHY J. McGINN