Harvard Continues Winning Ways

Two weeks into its season, the Harvard women’s swimming and diving teams are still undefeated and are now one step closer to a repeat title at the Ivy League Championships in February.

This past weekend, the Crimson hosted its home opener and final meet of the calendar year at Blodgett Pool with the Harvard Invitational, dominating the field in a first-place finish.

With the change in Harvard’s academic calendar, the Crimson’s coaches decided to host a meet a few weeks earlier than normal to give the athletes—particularly the freshmen—the opportunity to experience what it will be like in February when the Ivy Championships are held at Blodgett.

Harvard faced strong competition at the Invitational against Big East opponent Rutgers and Ivy League rival Columbia, as well as Sacred Heart and Wagner.

The invitational also replaced the Crimson’s dual matchup with the Lions, and Harvard handled them easily, amassing 1224 points to third-place Columbia’s 698.

The Crimson took advantage of facing such a strong adversary in Rutgers, who was second with 863 points. Harvard typically has not had the opportunity to compete against a Big East team, especially at this point in the season.

“Our team was ready for this meet,” Harvard coach Stephanie Morawski said. “We definitely knew what we wanted to do and what we wanted to accomplish. Sometimes a home meet is fantastic, and sometimes it is distracting. [The team] swam with a lot of heart and they swam smart.”

Junior Katy Hinkle started off the Crimson’s dominant weekend, contributing to Harvard’s sweep of Friday’s events. Hinkle won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.65, and also pitched in to help the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard medley relay squads win their respective races. Junior Katherine Pickard joined Hinkle in the 400-yard medley relay and also won the 200-yard individual medley.

“[Our team] started [the weekend off by] swimming fast,” Pickard said, “and it got the ball rolling for us.”

As the competition went on, it was clear that Harvard was not relying on one or two swimmers, but that a number of its swimmers could handle the events. In the 50-yard freestyle that Hinkle won, the top five spots were all filled by members of the Crimson.

“We have a very deep team,” junior Christine Kaufmann said. “That’s been one of our strengths for a while. At this meet, we also showed that we have a lot of speed as well.”

Co-captain Alexandra Clarke earned her first victory of the season in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:49.10. According to Morawski, Clarke—a three-time qualifier for the NCAA championships—is faster at this point in the season than she has ever been in her four years on the team.

“Ali is a wonderful swimmer,” Kaufmann said. “She is able to lead us both in and out of the pool, [and] she always finds a way to get her hand on the wall.”

Clarke finished the 500 freestyle a quarter of a second ahead of sophomore Catherine Zagroba, and once again, Harvard swimmers were the top five finishers in the event.

The Crimson continued its commanding performance throughout the weekend. Hinkle, freshman Mackenzie Luick, freshman Kelly Robinson, and junior Ali Slack won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:43.69, only 0.61 seconds ahead of Rutgers’ entry.

The two freshmen later contributed individual wins to the Crimson’s effort as well, as Robinson won the 100-yard butterfly, touching the wall in 55.11 seconds—Harvard swimmers again controlled the race, taking the top four spots for the event—and Luick took the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.88.

The Crimson continued its dominance in the 200-yard freestyle, as junior Kate Mills took the event with a time of 1:50.51, leading another Harvard top-five sweep.

“This meet gave our team a lot of confidence,” Kaufmann said. “It produced some pretty great results. We [can now] look at each of our races and find things that need to focus on to get better.”

Sunday brought more domination from the Crimson, which continued to rack up wins through the meet’s final event, the 400-yard freestyle relay.

With its next meet coming in January, Harvard prepares to train and get ready for the stretch of meets before the championship.

“The end of the season is about your depth,” Morawski said. “That’s what won the Ivy title for us last year, and that’s what is going to help us as we go after it again. [We aren’t] just a bunch of athletes who want to win. It’s the belief in one another that has made [us] really strong as a team.”