Men's Swimming Takes Down Penn in Final Dual Meet

The Harvard men’s swimming and diving team (8-2, 7-0 Ivy) had a strong start off the block this season and continued its tear through the final lap as it completed their dual meet season Saturday against Penn (6-4, 4-3). The Crimson earned a 182.5-115.5 victory over the Quakers to complete its sweep of its Ancient Eight competitors this season and earn its second consecutive dual meet title.

The meet was the last time Harvard’s eight seniors would compete in a regular season dual meet. Four of those seniors competed in the final event to close out the meet. Co-captains Chris Satterthwaite and Oliver Lee combined with classmates Jack Pretto and Danny Crigler to finish the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:00.80 seconds.

Coming off of its biggest wins of the year at last weekend’s sweep of Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet, the Crimson built on its momentum in its final meet before Ivy League Championships.

“We had some goals for the meet,” freshman Eric Ronda said. “For the rest of the kids who didn’t taper for the HYP meet [the goal was] that they taper for the Penn meet and get their best times of the season. Also another goal was to attack our races going out so we know the speed we have for Ivy championships.”

Ronda was victorious in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 56.73 seconds and the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:03.68 seconds.

“My personal swims were pretty good considering we had picked up the intensity and yardage of our training last week, and we were much more broken down than we were at our HYP meet the weekend before this,” Ronda said. “Although I didn’t get the times I did at HYP, they are good for this point in the season.”

Fellow freshmen Jack Manchester was also able to capture a first place finish for Harvard with a win in the 200 backstroke to continue his strong rookie season.

Throughout the meet, the Crimson won more than just the first place spot. Harvard also earned points with second and third place finishers. Harvard was able claimed the one-two combination five times throughout the day and sweep all three top spots three times.

“Having such a depth in our team allows us to race each other in practice, and it helps us win our meets, going one-two or one-two-three,” Ronda said. “Other teams may have one star, [but] if they get first we come in second, third and fourth so it helps a lot.”

Despite the loss, three Quaker swimmers broke pool records. Penn was victorious in five events on the day, including wins in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.

On the diving platform, junior Mike Mosca continued his dominant 2013-2014 campaign. Mosca swept both the 1-meter and 3-meter contests against the Quakers, making it the fifth time this season he has claimed victory in both events. He finished with a score of 345.83 on the 1-meter and 365.02 on the 3-meter.

“3-meter is definitely my preferred event because it’s higher, and you can do more difficult dives,” Mosca said. “The more difficult dives you can do, the more fun the competition is. It’s just better to watch and compete.”

Senior diver Joe Zarrella took second place in both events with scores of 328.80 on the 1-meter and 339.30 on the 3-meter.

Overall, Harvard had 10 event wins to end its dual meet season.

“This meet was more just a stepping stone where the swimmers taper,” Mosca said. “We have the dual meet championship title, so we should be the favorites going into ivies, and it’s always good to have that knowledge that we can win going into it.”

The team will host the Ivy League Championships at Blodgett Pool from Feb. 27th through March 1st.

“We have been level headed because the Crimson has won Ivy championships the past few years,” Ronda said. “Although we have our heads high now, we are staying really focused, and we still know it’s going to be a fight at Ivies.”

—Staff writer Theresa C. Hebert can be reached at thebert@college.harvard.edu.