Men's Swimming and Diving Sends Eight To NCAAs

In their final competitive event of the season, eight members of the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team will hit the water in Indianapolis to compete in the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships. Coming off a season in which the Crimson went undefeated in dual meets before barely losing the Ivy League Championships to four-time defending champion Princeton, Harvard will have one final test against the nation’s best squads.

The Crimson will send swimmers to compete in five individual events as well as all five relays over the course of the weekend. Sophomore Michael Mosca will be the lone representative of the diving contingent, having qualified for the national championships in both the one-meter and three-meter events.

“I’m excited to find out [what I can do at NCAA’s],” Mosca said. “I would love to beat my best so I can get points for my team. I think it’s great to be able to compete on the national level for Harvard men’s swimming and diving. There’s going to be a bunch of swimmers from our team, so it will be a great experience to dive alongside those swimmers.”

Harvard looks to improve upon its 34th place finish at last year’s national championship. California took home the national title in 2012, beating out the University of Texas by a 44.5-point margin. Stanford rounded out the top three team finishers.

Last year’s national championship was full of fresh faces, as all five of Harvard’s competitors were either freshmen or sophomores. This year, the seasoned veterans return to the national championships as All-Americans, looking to spearhead the Crimson’s 2013 campaign.

In 2012, sophomores Griffin Schumacher and Chuck Katis and juniors Oliver Lee and Chris Satterthwaite teamed for a 16th-place showing in last year’s 400 relay, earning honorable mention All-American accolades. Satterthwaite, Katis, Schumacher, and Zach Walters also earned All-American honors after finishing in 13th place in last year’s 800 free relay.

This year, all five return as members of Harvard’s various relay teams. Schumacher, Lee, and Satterthwaite will be joined by junior Danny Crigler in the 200 free relay. The team is coming off a victory at the Ivy League Championships, where it set a school record and posted an NCAA ‘A’ standard time in the event. Satterthwaite, Schumacher, and Lee will then be joined by Walters in the 400 free relay. The four combined for the ninth-fastest time in the nation this season and posted a school record on the way to a victory at the Ivy League Championships.

Walters, Schumacher, Katis, and Satterthwaite will then compete in the 800 free relay. The team is coming off a third-place finish at Ivies two weeks ago.

The Crimson will also take part in the 200 and 400 medley relays. The 200 medley squad—consisting of Satterthwaite, Katis, Lee, and Crigler—took second at Ivies but set a program record just a few weeks earlier at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton dual meet, where the Crimson became the first Ivy League school to beat Princeton in its home pool.

In the 400 medley, Satterthwaite, Katis, and Lee will be joined by Schumacher, as the group looks to replicate its success at Ivies, where it set a new program record en route to a first-place finish.

It will be a busy schedule from start to finish for the Harvard swimmers. All are competing in multiple relay events. Three swimmers will also be competing for the Crimson in individual events.

Katis will make an appearance in both the 100 and 200 breast events. Katis qualified for NCAA’s after setting NCAA ‘A’ standard times at the University of Georgia Fall Invite. He looks to improve on his 10th-place finish in the 100 and 20th-place finish in the 200 from last season’s national championship.

Meanwhile, Oliver Lee will make a return appearance in the 50 free after having set a school record in the preliminary swim at the Ivy League Championships. Satterthwaite is set to compete in the 100 as well as the 200 free. He is the reigning Ivy League champion in both events.

For the Crimson, a strong performance in this weekend’s national championships is just another step in establishing Harvard as a top-tier swimming program.

“[Making NCAA’s] is a really important step for our team,” Katis said. “We have an incredibly fast recruiting class coming in next year. We have work to do, but these are just stepping stones on the way to becoming a top 20, top 10 school.”

—Staff writer Brenna R. Nelsen can be reached at brennanelsen@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter at @CrimsonBRN.