Men Reeling From Tough Brown Loss

Maybe it was a case of expecting too much too soon. Of overestimating a few early season wins. Of looking too far into the future.

Whatever the scenario, the Harvard men's swimming team (which trounced its first three opponents and had visions of Eastern and possibly NCAA honors dancing in its heads) got a splash of chlorine in its eyes Tuesday at Brown.

A 129-119 loss to the Bears in Providence stung. Hard.

Wash The Sting Away

Starting today, the red-eyed defending Eastern champs--who have seriously hurt their chances of winning an outright Ivy title--hope to wash the sting away at Blodgett Pool, where the Crimson hosts Syracuse and Villanova in a meet designed to test the team's progress to date.

Before the Brown fiasco, Harvard had hoped to race into winter break undefeated and improving at the same steady rate it had been all season. Now Harvard will try to regroup this weekend and assess its progress.

"Keeping the Brown meet in mind, a lot of guys are going to be swimming with added intensity," said junior Richard Ou, who won the 200 breastroke against Brown.

Ambushed

At Brown, Harvard got the unexpected shock of facing a team starving for a win. The Bears tapered and shaved completely for the meet, giving the team added speed in the water, and also rested up.

The result? Brown edged out the Crimson in a series of early meets (the Bears took first and third in the 200 freestyle), forcing Harvard to play catch up in the final races. Sophomore Jan Esway scored a crucial wins in the 200 IM (1:54.21) and 100 freestyle (46:83), as did Tri-Captain Steve Root in the 200 butterfly (1:53.95).

Harvard almost made it. Heading into the final relay, the 400 freestyle, the Crimson needed to take both first and third places to win. But Brown, which had won the medley relay earlier, edged out the Crimson for both spots.

Harvard was missing a number of key personnel, some to injury, but the Crimson was still a far more talented team. Not that you'd guess it by listening to the team.

"A lot of us are very, very down about the situation. We were pretty confident after the past few meets. I think confidence got the best of us," Ou said.

No Change in Agenda

The Crimson, Which will likely see its national ranking of 22 drop after Tuesday's tragedy, still has reason to be confident heading into this weekend's races against the un-heralded, un-tested Orangemen and Wildcats.

The team's agenda certainly hasn't changed. In the invitational format, Harvard hopes to try its swimmers out in different events, giving them valuable racing experience.

The meet's design will also be a not-so-subtle reminder of the team's goal of winning Easterns again: this is the Crimson's only three-day meet with both preliminary and final rounds (the format of Easterns) before the championships in March.

The loss to Brown behind it, Harvard hopes to keep that focus clear.

It should also watch out for future splashes of water to the eye.