United They Stand

The new and improved Harvard women's swim team is breathing fire and ready to take on the last major obstacle between itself and its first-ever Ivy League title.

Enter the Princeton Tigers.

For the first time, the women's team--long overshadowed by the perennial excellence of its male counterpart--will have a chance to prove it can stand on its own.

This Saturday at 1 p.m., the Harvard women's swim team (4-0 Ivy, 7-1 overall) will look to move a step closer to the Ivy crown when Princeton invades Blodgett Pool in a meet that is likely to decide the league championship.

With a change of coaching staff and a building enthusiasm among team members, the aquawomen have shown spectacular improvement over the past two years. Loud, outspoken, energetic and ambitious, Coach Maura Costin '80 returned to Harvard two years ago and has turned the gears of a group of talented and motivated individuals into a fine-tuned machine.

"Maura has done a fantastic job bringing the team together," Co-Captain Annie Wilson said. "Vicky Hays' [the coach before Costin] philosophy was that the individual should do what's best for her, so there was a problem of team cohesiveness.

"[Maura] stresses the team concept, and that's worked well," Wilson said. "People think swimming is an individual sport, but it isn't."

Costin, however, stresses that it is her swimmers, not she, who have made the team come alive. "Everyone here is dedicated to swimming," said Costin. "They are very, very committed athletes.

The path to this new unity detoured through the stomach. Costin, who almost always has a jar of M&Ms in her office, introduced the idea of "secret pal" last year whereby swimmers anonymously exchange gifts throughout the season. "It's a riot," Wilson said, "and usually food."

The swimmers make a point of getting together outside of practice, whether it is breakfast at Kirkland House after morning workouts, pizza parties, or dinner at Costin's house--which nourishes the togetherness of the team.

In fact, it's not the food but the swimmers who bring the team together. "They're sensitive to others," Costin said. "When you go away to college, it can be a very individualized experience. When you're in an individual sport, more so."

But for the Crimson women, swimming is not an individual sport. "If someone is down, there are eight people there to cheer her up," Wilson said. "It's like a second family."

For freshmen like Linda Suhs, this means a lot. "It's really helped this year," Suhs said. "Most of my friends are on the team. It put me at home." No wonder the eight freshmen have repeatedly turned in stellar performances.

The team unity is given a focus the night before each meet when the team gets together for a "psych meeting." During these sessions, each swimmer gets up and states her personal goal for the meet and a goal for the team.

"For example, before the Brown meet [the women's biggest upset this year], we focused on talking about the team winning," Wilson said. "That's been the trademark this year: the first goal is winning the meet; the second, individual. It's been contagious."

But even at Blodgett Pool, winning isn't everything. "It has to be fun for them to do it," Costin said. To get out of practice, the team has gone to such lengths as starting raucus cheers or ordering pizza to be delivered to the pool.

The women's swim team is tightly knit, both among the players themselves and with their coach. On any given day, you're likely to find five or six swimmers "hanging out" 7