Women Take on Non-League Powers

In some college sports, December tournaments with names like "Harvard Invitational" are buzz-words for "joke."

The host school invites three hopeless teams to beat up on and manhandle for a weekend. An extended practice, a joyride before the rigors of the season set in.

This weekend, Harvard will host Worcester Polytechnic Institute, North Central Illinois State and Babson at the Harvard Invitational.

Patsies, brought in like lambs to the slaughter for the merriment of the home crowd. That's what some college programs do.

But not the Harvard women's swimming team. It has to be different.

Starting this afternoon, the dare-to-be-different Crimson hosts swimming powers Syracuse, Villanova and Indiana in a three-day meet at Blodgett Pool.

The Crimson is no slouch of a team. In fact, it's pretty damn good (Eastern Champions four of the last five years). However, this weekend's opponents are larger and perhaps stronger, according to Head Coach Maura Costin Scalise.

But that's a good thing.

"Sometimes you beat people you didn't think you could beat," Costin Scalise said. The meet is a good opportunity for Harvard to face stiff competition outside the Ivy League, she added.

"In the Ivy League, Harvard is a big fish in a little pond," she said.

Nothing except pride is at stake this weekend. (Kinda like a Patriots-Jets game.) Harvard will use this meet to size up its very young team--10 of the 24 swimmers are freshmen.

That's what early season tournaments are for, anyway: a chance to evaluate the team early in the season.

"We always gear up for a meet in December...to see what we have," Costin Scalise said.

Still, Harvard is taking the meet quite seriously. Not only is the team "shaving down"--swimmers shave their legs to gain an extra hundredth-of-a-second or two--but Costin Scalise has tapered the team's workouts to conserve her swimmers' energy.

"People are really pumped, rested, and raring to go," tri-Captain Eva Romas said.

Costin Scalise is expecting particularly strong showings this weekend from senior Lynn Kelley (in the freestyle sprints and 100 and 200 meter butterfly), junior Heather Gibbons (freestyle distance) and sophomore Deborah Kory (breaststroke, individual medleys and the relays).

Freshmen Caroline Miller (in the butterfly), Alexa Zesgter (freestyle and backstroke) and Greta Steffenson (freestyle distance) are also expected to excel.

The six-woman diving team, which will compete against Syracuse and Villanova today and Colgate (which will compete in place of Indiana--the Hoosiers decided not to bring their divers) on Saturday, is expected to put up big points for the Crimson as well.

"I think the divers are definitely going to be a strength in this meet," diving team Captain Tara Gately said.

The Harvard Invitational is also good preparation for the granddaddy of all the meets: the Eastern Championships. The formats of the two meets are identical, which helps the freshmen acclimatize themselves to the collegiate meet format.

With a 2-0 record so far this year, the team holds high hopes not only for the Invitational but also for the rest of the season.