W. Swimming Cruises, Starts Season With Three Victories

The Harvard women’s swimming and diving team blew the competition out of the water this weekend, winning 23 out of a possible 31 events over two meets and against three opponents.

The Crimson (3-0, 3-0 Ivy) took on both Cornell (1-1, 1-1) and Dartmouth (0-2, 0-2) in its season opener at an away meet on Saturday in Hanover, N.H., beating the Big Red 176-124 and whipping the Big Green 190-110. Harvard then went on to an even bigger home debut on Sunday, annihilating Columbia (0-1, 0-1) 205-92 and winning all but two events contested.

Harvard coach Stephanie Wriede-Morawski ’92 tested out swimmers in different events throughout the meet against Cornell and Dartmouth, with freshmen winning 10 out of the 23 events won on the weekend.

CORNELL-DARTMOUTH TRI-MEET

The Crimson’s freshman swimmers debuted to rave reviews, earning five of the Crimson’s 10 event wins. Freshman Bridget O’Connor captured two first-place finishes—one in the 100-yard butterfly, her main event, the other the top half of a 1-2 Harvard finish in the 200-yard freestyle. Classmate Meaghan Colling placed second.

Other freshmen to finish with first-place times were Lindsay Hart in the 1,000-yard freestyle and Jackie Pangilinan in the 200-yard individual medley. Those events are both off-events for the swimmers, who usually swim backstroke and breaststroke, respectively, as their main events, but Wriede-Morawski saw this meet as a chance to swim some of her racers outside their normal strokes, as a win was almost surely guaranteed.

“She saw [this] meet as an opportunity to do some off-events,” Hart said, “[because the] next couple weekends we are going to have to put up some points.”

Freshman Amanda Slaight also went on to lead a 1-2 win for Harvard in her first collegiate race, taking first place in her signature event, the 100-yard breaststroke just 0.25 seconds ahead of last year’s standout freshman, LeeAnn Chang.

Junior Jane Evans matched O’Connor’s two individual event wins, placing first in both the 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard breaststroke with an easy win in the butterfly before leading a 1-2-3 finish in the breaststroke for the Crimson, handily besting Colling and Slaight.

Harvard’s top relay, comprised of senior Molly Ward, Pangilinan, senior Alli Bates and Slaight, also went on to win the 200-yard medley.

The Crimson women’s divers had a big night as well, sweeping the diving events with a win in both the one-meter and three-meter. Senior tri-captain Anne Osmun anchored the Harvard effort, taking first in the three-meter diving ahead of teammates Samantha Papadakis and Annika Giesbrecht. Giesbrecht then went on to clinch the deal by winning the one-meter diving, an event that she won the Ivy League championship in last year.

COLUMBIA

Harvard dismantled Columbia, winning 13 out of a possible 15 events in which it was entered.

But the real excitement during Sunday’s meet came when junior Noelle Bassi shattered the Crimson record in the 200-yard butterfly—previously 2:01:98—with her own first-place time in the event of 2:00:05.

The second place finisher was O’Connor, who ended up finishing a full five seconds beyond Bassi with a time of 2:05:36.

For Bassi—who sat out last season following her transfer from Tennessee—the swim was her first as an official member of the Harvard team.

“It is hard when you swim and you look at it and have a goal in mind,” Bassi said. “I was really excited and [Wriede-Morawski] was, too.”

But Bassi wasn’t about to stop there. She went on to also take first place in the 500-yard freestyle. The Crimson rounded out the event with second- and third-place finishes from sophomore Emily Wilson and O’Connor.

Bassi was also only one of three Harvard swimmers who would go on to win two individual events each during the meet.

Hart and Pangilinan both won their two respective events. Hart took home the first-place points in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke, which is her stroke of expertise.

“It was good to get out and race and know that the hard work in the pool is paying off,” Hart said. “Everyone was on the sidelines cheering, and to know you are doing it for more than just your swimming but for the whole team is great.”

Pangilinan snatched a first-place finish in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke events as well. Pangilinan, who swam for the Phillipines this summer at the Olympics, specializes in breaststroke and should dominate in those events.

But the other big freshman winner of the night was Papadakis, who captured first place in the three-meter dive with an overall score of 297.60.

“It was really exciting because as a freshman it boosted my confidence and really showed me that I can be competitive in the Ivy League,” Papadakis said. “To finish like that in one of the first meets makes me feel really confident in my abilities for the rest of the season.”

Other winners for the day included senior Molly Brethauer who came in first in the 100-yard butterfly followed by junior Jane Evans who took second place.

Brethauer also finished third in the 100-yard backstroke rounding out a 1-2-3 finish in that event for the Crimson led by junior Kim Ono who took first and senior tri-captain Emily Stapleton who took second.

Junior Erin Mulkey and Ward had strong showings in the 100-yard and 50-yard freestyle events with Mulkey finishing first in the 100 and second in the 50 and Ward finishing first in the 50 and second in the 100.