Aquawomen Crunch Princeton

It was a meet in which the Harvard women's swimming team needed to be decisive, to prove to a doubting world how good it really was.

And by the time the aquawomen left the deck of Blodgett Pool Saturday, any questions about the strength of the squad had been eliminated.

For what had promised to be a severe test for Harvard instead resulted in a 87-53 rout of visiting Princeton, leaving the Crimson women only two weeks away from their first-ever Ivy League title.

The Crimson (8-1 overall, 5-0 Ivy League) used a total team effort to dispose promptly of the Lady Tigers (5-3, 4-2), as the host squad won a full 12 of 16 events on the day and scored no lower than second in any race.

Harvard Coach Maura Costin was very pleased with her team's performance during an exhausting week of competition which saw the squad pull out a cliff-hanger against Yale in New Haven Tuesday night before facing Princeton on Saturday.

"Princeton had the potential coming into the meet to stop us, but all of our swimmers just did their job," Costin said. "The strongest part of this team is that having so many close meets under our belts makes us less nervous about just going out and executing."

While eventually turning into a blowout, the meet stayed relatively close during its early stages. Princeton even took an initial lead with a victory in the first event, the 200-yd. medley relay, despite Harvard's school record time of 1:49.09 swum by Linda Suhs, Allison Greis, Karen Schneider and Lani Nelson.

The Tigers could have opened up an even larger gap except for the gutsy swimming of sophomore Michelle Engh in the 1000 freestyle, who caught up to Princeton's Chris Spector during the last 50 yards to win the race by three-tenths of a second with a time of 10:31.85.

Following the 1000 freestyle came a rare tie in the 200 freestyle between Harvard's Janice Sweetser and Darcie Ekert of Princeton. Their time of 1:52.54 was fast enough to give Sweetser a school record in the event.

The Crimson took the lead for good in the 100 breaststroke, in which Greis and Nelson finished first and second to give the home team a 22-21 edge.

Highlights

Highlighting the afternoon for Harvard were the three individual victories and one relay win for freshman Sweetser, who triumphed in the 100 and 500 freestyle events and the 400 freestyle relay, in addition to her first-place tie in the 200 freestyle.

Other strong individual performances were turned in by senior Greis and freshman Schneider, each with two victories in the meet. In addition to the 100 breaststroke, Greis claimed the 200 breaststroke, while Schneider swam to wins in both the 200 butterfly and the 200 individual medley, besides earning a second-place finish in the 100 butterfly.

Clutch diving by freshman Jennifer Greene prevented the Lady Tigers from narrowing the gap between the sqauds. Greene won both the 1- and 3-meter diving events over tough Princeton competition, and in the process set a Harvard record on the 3-meter board with a score of 317.85 points.

Saturday's methodical execution of the Tigers leaves the Crimson women checking their ring sizes in anticipation of the championship rings which have forever eluded them.

A victory at Cornell's Teagle Hall next Saturday would clinch a first-place tie, while wins over both Cornell and Pennsylvania the following week would give Harvard an undefeated 7-0 record against Ivy competition and the undisputed Ancient Eight Championship.

An Ivy title would be crucial for a team which for many years has lived in the shadows of a men's squad that has captured eight consecutive Eastern Seaboard championships.

And Costin, in only her second year at the helm, has her swimmers convinced they can do the job "When we step out on deck before meet, we expect to win," said Captain Annie Wilson.

With that attitude, the rest of the Ivy League could be in trouble for quite a while.