W. Swimming Drowns Tigers For Ivy Title

After a five-year winning streak at the Ivy League Championships, Princeton will just have to get used to being No. 2 as the Harvard women’s swimming team knocked off the perennial power this weekend.

“I think for us to do that it made it even more incredible,” freshman Bridget O’Connor said. “I feel like with any sport when you have a rival its great to beat them finally. They have won for so long. I think that it just feels great to have a perfect season, it was amazing.”

After three long days of competition, Harvard (10-0, 7-0 Ivy) took the Ivy Championship for the first time since 1992 by a 226-point margin over the Tigers, who had to be satisfied with a second-place finish.

“It was really exciting,” sophomore Noelle Bassi said. “We pushed [head coach Stephanie Wriede-Morawski] in and we were all jumping up and down and hugging each other.”

After winning three events on Day One but dropping to second place in the standings after a disqualification in one, the Crimson came back strong and over the next two days of competition won six of the final 15 events.

The most impressive finish of the meet was the one-two-three finish that Harvard secured in the 1,000-yard freestyle. Sophomores Stacy and Kelly Blondin finished in first and second place while classmate Laurin Weisenthal finished right behind in third.

“Last year they swam completely different events and this year they started swimming distance and it has worked out really well for them,” Bassi said. “They just found the events they are supposed to be swimming.”

Stacy and Kelly Blondin also finished first and second, respectively, in the 1650-yard freestyle with provisional NCAA championship-qualifying times and were followed by sophomore Emily Wilson in fourth.

The only other person to have two first-place finishes in the meet was Bassi, who posted several provisional NCAA qualifying times.

Bassi finished first in the 400-yard IM and setting her second school record of the meet with a time of 4:18.86. She was followed by junior Jane Evans who came in second.

“It was exciting mostly,” Bassi said. “[Pangilinan and I] weren’t focused on breaking the records but more on winning the event and getting the points for the team.”

Bassi also won the first place points in the 200-yard butterfly followed by Evans in fourth.

But Bassi wasn’t the only Crimson swimmer to break a school record. Freshman Jackie Pangilinan broke an 11-year-old record in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.65.

“[Bassi and Pangilinan] both trained so hard all year long and there couldn’t have been two other people that I could have been so happy for,” O’Conner said. “They deserve it so much.”

But Pangilinan’s stand out performance was only good for a second-place finish followed by freshman Meghan Colling who took fourth.

Pangilinan also led a one-two finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, her main event, with sophomore LeAnn Chang taking second place. Both swimmers recorded provisional NCAA qualifying times.

The only other swimmer to win an event in the second two days of the meet was freshman Bridget O’Conner who lead a one two finish in the 100-yard butterfly with senior Allison Bates finishing in second.

Senior Molly Ward swam well, placing in the top four in two events. Ward finished third in the 200-yard freestyle behind two Princeton swimmers and fourth in the 100-yard freestyle.

Junior Michelle Bright brought home the second-place points with a time only one-hundredth of a second behind her own school record and led a three swimmer finish in the 200-yard backstroke followed by senior Emily Stapleton in third and freshman Lindsay Hart in fourth.

“In every event we had so many people swimming together from Harvard and that really helped,” O’Conner said. “I think knowing that they all train together made them so confident going in and seeing each other they pushed each other harder.”

The only event in which the Crimson did not place in the top four was the 100-yard backstroke. Stapleton was the highest Harvard finisher in sixth place.

But it wasn’t just the swimmers who finished out the meet well as the divers also put fourth strong performances. Freshman Samantha Papadakis finished fourth in the three-meter dive followed by senior Anne Osmun who finished in seventh.

Although Harvard excelled in many areas in this meet, it failed to secure a first-place finish in its last three relays, consistently finishing second to the Tigers. The Crimson finished first in the 400-yard medley relay on day one, but ended up being disqualified.

“I mean technically in the score books we didn’t win but we did beat everyone by a significant amount in that relay,” O’Conner said. “In everyone else’s mind we did win that relay and it was our best relay—we knew that we had the four fastest girls in the Ivy League.”

Harvard started out day three by taking second place in the 200-yard medley relay with the team of Ward, Bates, Pangilinan, and freshman Amanda Slaight.

At the end of the day the Crimson once again finished second to the Tigers in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a team composed of Weisenthal, Wilson, Bassi, and junior Erin Mulkey.

Harvard ended out the meet on day four in second place behind Princeton once again in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Ward, Slaight, Mulkey, and Colling made up the relay team.

But no one was disappointed with the loss in the relays as the team was too excited about their win at Ivies after so many years of trying.

“We were not really focused on breaking [Princeton’s] streak but on starting our own,” Bassi said. “We are hoping to start a new tradition and to keep the trophy and the Ivy Championship title at our pool.”

—Staff writer Abigail M. Baird can be reached at ambaird@fas.harvard.edu.