SEASON RECAP: Men's Swimming

After Harvard finished its perfect 8-0 season with a dominant performance at the EISL Championships, the Crimson men’s swimmers immediately returned to the pool.

Not for off-seasons workouts or time-trials—the fully clothed swimmers accepted their trophies, waved to the departing crowd, and then collectively took a giant leap back into Blodgett Pool.

There, they celebrated the team’s eighth EISL crown in 10 years and the first undefeated season since 1998-1999. Their season T-shirts had loudly proclaimed “PERFECT,” and Harvard made sure its post-season results matched its dual season performance.

“We were pretty confident that we were going to come in and beat every team [in the dual season],” co-captain John Cole said. “Columbia was one of our first meets and they finished third last year, so we knew they were ready for us. They came out charging for us, and we just killed them.”

The Crimson buried Columbia 203-97, winning 13 of 16 events in a weekend meet celebrating 75 years of Harvard swimming. The depth of the squad—Harvard swept the top three spots in the 1000-yard freestyle as well as the top four in the 200-yard butterfly and the 100-yard freestyle—made the Crimson an early favorite for the EISL title in February.

“The entire season was all a prelude to [EISLs],” next year’s co-captain David Cromwell said. “With every victory we were always looking on to the next one.”

The victories kept coming for Harvard, but none was more important than an emphatic thrashing of Princeton and Yale in the annual HYP meet. With the Crimson, Bulldogs, and Tigers always vying for EISL preeminence, the showdown has become the dual season’s predictor of February championship success. In 2004, Harvard fell to Princeton 192-161, and the Tigers took home the EISL title one month later.

But in 2005, the Crimson had no problem dispelling its premier EISL competition. On the second day of a two-day meet, Harvard won six of the final nine events to break open the race for first.

Freshman Geoff Rathgeber won the 200- and 400-yard individual medleys, Cole swept the 200-, 500-, and 1,650-yard freestyles, and senior James Lawler finished first in the 100- and 200-yard butterflies. With Cromwell’s sweep of the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes, the Crimson left no doubt that Harvard would be a challenger in every race and every distance. Harvard beat Princeton 225-128 and Yale 252-99.

“That’s our focus dual meet of the year,” Cole said. “It was a complete confidence builder. HYP was a huge boost.”

One month later, the Crimson took to its lanes at Blodgett Pool and buried the eight EISL schools one more time.

“Our goal from the beginning was to have this perfect season,” co-captain Andy Krna said afterwards. “We’ve either won HYP and lost Easterns or the other way around. Last year we lost in both, and we made it a team goal this year to come in and win every meet.”

Harvard swept all five EISL relays, including the meet’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay that it had lost to Princeton at the HYP meet.

“We hadn’t won the four-hundred free relay in a while,” Cole said. “We’d win the overall meet and lose the last event.”

But the Crimson used the added relay as a final exclamation point to a weekend of dominance: Harvard won 13 of 21 events, and the squad sat atop the EISL podium yet again.

“We were completely dominant in so many events,” Cole said. “It was a really impressive showing, and I couldn’t have imagined a better finish than to have it at Blodgett.”

—Staff writer Aidan E. Tait can be reached at atait@fas.harvard.edu.