Aquawomen Edged by Bulldogs

How 'bout them Crimson?

Yes, the Georgia Bulldogs took first place in the Harvard Invitational, but the Harvard women's swimming team cruised home with a strong second place in the three-day meet held over the weekend at Blodgett Pool.

The Crimson compiled an impressive 658.5 points to Georgia's 754. Harvard outclassed the highly ranked teams from Kansas (575) and Arkansas (393.5). Brown (405.5), Air Force (139), and Boston University (111.5) rounded out the field.

"The team surpassed the team goals and went beyond what I expected," Harvard Coach Maura Costin-Scalise said. "We beat Arkansas and Kansas and gave Georgia a run for their money."

"I don't think Kansas expected us to beat them," Harvard backstroker Kaari Reierson said. "I think we impressed a lot of people."

Harvard did its best swimming on Saturday, winning two races. All-America Mia Costello was the top qualifier for the 100-yd. breaststroke and lived up to that status in the final, touching in first in 1:05.44. Her closest competitor was teammate Anne Koerckel, who shaved almost half a second offher qualifying time to finish in 1:05.99.

The other Crimson triumph came in the 100-yd.backstroke. Top qualifier Sheila Findley surged tovictory in 57.91 while Reierson took eighth in59.82.

The comeback swim of the day belonged toTri-Captain Janice Sweetser, who was in sixthplace after the first 100 yards of the 200-yd.freestyle but poured it on to take second in1:51.36. Jill Hutchinson churned home in 1:52.85,good for sixth place.

In both the 100-yd. butterfly and the 400-yd.individual medley, Harvard's top finish was fifth.Courtney Chubb (57.08) in the fly and Koerckel(4:29.11) in the IM did the honors.

Yesterday's successes included the third placefinish of freshman Stacie Duncan in the mile.Duncan's time of 16:53.54 broke the eight-year-oldHarvard record in the event.

The backstrokers came through again with thetwo-three finish of Findley (2:04.90) and Reierson(2:05.68) in the 200-yd. backstroke.

However, the story yesterday was fatigue. "Itwas a very long meet for some people," Reiersonsaid.

Despite her strong swim, Findley lost over asecond off her qualifying time. And after herrecord-breaking performance, Duncan had nothingleft for the 200-yd. butterfly, finishing eighth.Chubb was Harvard's top finisher in the event,taking seventh in 2:06.54.

Even Costello lost a stroke. The top qualifierfor the 200-yd. breaststroke managed only fourthin 2:21.59. Koerckel remained strong and shaved.38 off her qualifying time to take fifth in2:22.06.

"Tonight we were just tired," Costin-Scalisesaid. "A team like Georgia can cruise in thetrials, but we have to work hard to get threepeople in the finals.