Enoch Named Swimmer of the Meet at Ivy Championships

This past weekend, Harvard freshman Geordie Enoch entered the pool with just six collegiate swim meets under her belt and exited an Ancient Eight champion.

The Crimson hosted this year’s Ivy League Championship meet, where the freshman sensation earned a first place finish in the 200 individual medley, despite re-aggravating a quadricep injury in the preliminary round of the race on the meet’s first day.

Unphased, she continued to take first in the 400 IM and third third in the 200breaststroke. In addition, Enoch chipped in to help the Crimson earn two third-place finishes in relay events, the 200 and 800 freestyle relays. The performance earned the Odenton, Md. native the title of High Point Swimmer of the Meet.

Enoch earned the Crimson its first gold medal of the night in the 200 IM. Her preliminary time of 2:00.90 was the fastest of all qualifying times for the event, and she proceeded to best that mark with a finish of 2:00.66 in the final race.

“I tried to remember that all of my teammates were behind me,” Enoch said. “That gives you a certain confidence, and you don’t have some of those doubts that you have going into the morning race.”

On Friday, Enoch showed her grit by fighting through injury to claim first place in the 400 medley, besting the next closest competitor, Yale’s Sydney Hirschi, by nearly a full second.

She also improved on her preliminary time for the event by over three seconds, the greatest difference of any swimmer who finished amongthe top eight.

Despite Enoch’s fast times and high finishes, the efforts from the Harvard team was not enough to claim the Frank Keefe Trophy for the second consecutive year.

The title would in fact return to the Princeton Tigers, who tallied 1423 points over the weekend, just enough to beat out the Crimson, who scored 1401.5 points of its own to finish in second.

Yale rounded out the top three by finishing third, replicating its finish in the HYP meet last month. Enoch shined in that meet as well, winning in the 200 IM with a time of 2:04.10.

And while every race proved to be close competition, Enoch earned top-three placements during all three of the meet’s days.

“[The meet] can be emotionally taxing by the end of the third day,” said Harvard coach Stephanie Wriede Morawski ’92. “It is an exhausting event—three days is a long meet.”

Enoch did all that she could for the Crimson, including setting personal bests in both the 200 and 400 individual medleys. She also set another personal record in the 200 breaststroke.

“[Geordie] has a big presence on the team that everyone recognizes,” junior Danielle Lee said of her teammate. “She’s definitely gained a lot of confidence and has learned to race at her best. We help her, we support her, we push her up, and she does the same for us.”

Enoch is part of a freshman class that had shown great promise for the future of the Crimson swimming team in their first seasons. Fellow rookie Kristina Li took second behind Lee in the 100 yard backstroke while freshman Gabby Sims finished tenth in the 50 free and fifth in the 100 free, posting two personal records at the meet.

As the team moves forward, Lee said that there is little doubt that Enoch will play a crucial role for the Crimson in the coming years.

Enoch, who was a two-time All-American in the 200 IM in high school (setting school and league records in the event), has stood out all year long, roaring out of the gates during a standout freshman season.

Enoch started the year by finishing second with Li in a 200 medley relay, winning her first IM meet the next week in Harvard’s 215-85 win over Columbia. Two weeks later, she concluded her first semester by making the event finals at the Texas Invitational.

“We’re awestruck every time she’s in the water,” Lee said. “Coming out of high school, it can be hard to start at this level. She’s definitely coming into her own.”