Harvard Uses Depth To Overpower Foes

Although last year’s stellar season might be tough to top, the No. 25 men’s swimming and diving team doesn’t seem to have lost a step. The Crimson (2-0, 2-0 EISL) opened up its season Saturday in a double dual meet at Blodgett Pool, edging out Cornell 158-142 and dominating Dartmouth 253-47.

Harvard was matched by the Big Red in winning eight events apiece, but the host’s overall consistency led to yet another Crimson victory. The Big Green failed to win a single event.

“It was just a scrappy meet,” Harvard coach Tim Murphy said. “The guys knew that whether they were getting first place or fifth place, every point was going to be important.”

Harvard’s all-around performance got off to a great start, with co-captain Eric Lynch winning the day’s second event, the 1000-yard freestyle, finishing in 9:18.72.

Junior Alex Meyer and sophomore Blake Lewkowitz were close behind, finishing second and third with 9:27.33 and 9:30.08, respectively.

“It’s huge always to start off the meet with a 1-2-3 like that,” Lynch said. “I was proud of my distance-mates.”

The trio of Lynch, Meyer, and Lewkowitz would repeat its 1-2-3 performance in the 500-yard freestyle, as Lynch led the way once again in 4:33.91. Meyer followed with 4:36.85 while Lewkowitz finished at 4:40.17.

Equaling Lynch’s two individual wins in swimming events was sophomore Jordan Diekema, who took the 100-yard and 200-yard backstroke races, narrowly beating out Cornell’s Phil Baity in both events. Diekema defeated the Big Red swimmer in the 100-yard back with a time of 50.25—a margin of victory of .27—and he followed that up in the 200-yard back with a first-place time of 1:50.15, while Baity placed second at 1:50.58.

“[Diekema’s wins] were pivotal swims,” Murphy said.

“Our distance guys did some really solid work,” he added.

A competitor at last year’s Olympic Trials and NCAA championships, senior Bill Jones touched the wall first with a mark of 49.77 in the 100-yard butterfly—just .1 seconds ahead of Cornell’s Wes Newman—while freshman Nicholas Tan placed third with an even 50.00. Tan made the most of his first collegiate meet, capturing the 200-yard butterfly with a meet-best time of 1:51.27. Jones was a close second in 1:51.53, while freshman Ross Ford finished in fifth with a time of 1:53.50.

The Crimson’s other two victories came in the diving events, as sophomore Zac Ranta came out on top in both the 1-meter and 3-meter dives. He earned 288.15 points to win in the former and garnered 306.35 points to capture the latter event.

Other Harvard divers made strong showings of their own, as freshman Taylor Nickel placed fourth in his debut in the 1-meter with 245.63 points, while fellow freshman Andy Krantz was seventh with 226.80.

Krantz stepped up in the 3-meter attempt, finishing third with 262.05 points, while Nickel was again fourth with 251.50.

“Definitely, the freshman divers deserve some recognition for stepping up to the plate in their first meet and doing a great job,” Ranta said.

The rest of the Crimson’s points came from its depth, as it placed second and third in four races.

Junior Simone Melillo and sophomore Justin Davidson took second and third in the 100 breaststroke with their performances of 58.31 and 58.69, respectively. In the 200-yard individual medley, sophomore Douwe Yntema was second at 1:53.58, while freshman Niall Janney followed closely behind him, posting a time of 1:54.30.

Harvard also finished second and third in both the 200-yard medley and the 400-yard freestyle relays.

Diekema, Davidson, Jones, and co-captain David Guernsey took second in the 200-yard medley relay with a combined time of 1:32.02, while Chui, Melillo, Tan, and sophomore Will Heyburn were 1.48 seconds behind with a time of 1:33.50.

“The medley relay we were a little disappointed with—we were hoping to get a win in that,” Diekema said. “We swam pretty well. [Cornell was] faster than maybe we thought they’d be.”

In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Tan, Jones, Heyburn, and Guernsey finished in second place in 3:06.60, and the team of Diekema, freshman Graham Frankel, sophomore Eric Taylor, and freshman Nicholas DuCille placed third in the event with a time of 3:09.09.

The Crimson will look to carry its momentum over to its meet against Columbia on Friday at Blodgett Pool.

“I think today we rose to the challenge pretty well, and we’re going to have to do the same next week,” Lynch said.