Women's Swimming Takes 1st In Every Event

The Harvard women’s swimming and diving team preserved its undefeated season in dominating fashion against Penn on Saturday afternoon. The Crimson (4-0, 4-0 Ivy) won every event in its 199-96 victory over the Quakers (4-3, 2-3) at Sheerr Pool.

Harvard had five double-winners in the meet, including record-breaking performances from freshman Kate Mills and senior Samantha Papadakis.

“I thought this was a good way to get back into racing mode again,” head coach Stephanie Morawski said. “It was a low-pressure meet, but our swimmers treated it as a very serious opportunity to set themselves up for the rest of the season.”

Mills continued her impressive rookie campaign by setting another pool record in the 200-yard butterfly (2:02.84). She won the event by more than seven seconds and also claimed the 500-yard freestyle in 4:57.54.

Papadakis, the Crimson’s top diver, won the 1-meter diving event with a score of 301.50 before taking the 3-meter competition with a pool-record 325.95.

She was followed in the 3-meter event by freshmen Jennifer Reese and Anne Taylor, combining for one of Harvard’s two event sweeps of the afternoon. Freshmen Katy Hinkle and Ali Slack and sophomore Vanda Gyuris took 1-2-3 in the 100-yard freestyle as well.

All four of the Crimson’s divers, including freshman Marissa Ash, qualified for the NCAA Zone Diving Meet with their performances.

Harvard won the 200-yard medley relay, the first event of the day, and never looked back. Hinkle, co-captain Jackie Pangilinan, freshman Katherine Pickard, and Slack won the race in 1:47.80.

The Crimson’s team of sophomore Natalia Festa, senior Meaghan Colling, freshman Laura Murray, and senior Amanda Slaight took second place in the event.

“We raced really well. Some people swam some very fast times,” Morawski said. “But more importantly, they were executing really strong race plans, which bodes well for the end of the season.”

This was Harvard’s first meet since the Georgia Invitational in early December, and the team has stepped up its training over the last month.

“We set some goals for ourselves because it’s really difficult to swim when you’re beaten up,” Pangilinan said. “We wanted to set a pool record, work on our walls, and see three season-best times out of people.”

The Crimson surpassed even its own expectations, with two pool records, four season-best times, and a slew of well-executed turns.

“We really accomplished what we set out to do,” Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan won both of the meet’s breaststroke events, taking the 100 in 1:05.99 and the 200 in 2:20.50. Colling placed second in both events.

Hinkle and sophomore Kay Foley also took two individual events apiece for Harvard. Foley won the 400-yard individual medley and the 200-yard backstroke, while Hinkle claimed the 100-yard backstroke and the 100-yard freestyle.

In the afternoon’s final event, the Crimson’s top 200-yard freestyle relay team, though racing in an exhibition, narrowly missed another pool record. The team of Hinkle, Slack, Murray, and Slaight touched the wall in a time of 1:37.14.

Harvard’s other exhibition entry in the event was a team made up of divers Papadakis—who is also an inactive Crimson sports editor—Reese, Taylor, and Ash.

“They had a lot of fun,” Morawski said.

Morawski was particularly proud of her team’s performance in the midst of a stressful reading period.

“It’s really important for everyone to rally and put their academic stresses behind them for a few hours and get up there and race,” Morawski said. “If they can do that now during stress, then they should be able to hold together during any stressful athletic event.”

The Crimson will now take a two-week break from competition for final exams before resuming its Ivy season at Blodgett Pool against Brown on Jan. 26. It will be the first and only home dual meet for Harvard this season and the last home meet for the Crimson’s seniors.

The Crimson will then face Yale and Princeton, traditionally the team’s toughest league competition, in a tri-meet over the first weekend in February as its final tuneup before the Ivy championships.

“[The Penn meet] sets the tone. We’ll work on the little things until the championships,” Pangilinan said. “We’re just focusing on the last two meets of the season.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.