Men's Swimming Rolls Over Big Red

Harvard's men's swimming team traveled to Cornell on Saturday for a dual expecting to come out of Ithaca with a win.

"We certainly expected to win," senior tri-captain Dave Osterhus said. "Cornell has got some very good individual performers, but they don't have the depth that we have. We didn't think that they would be a problem."

Fortunately for the team, such high expectations failed to be the kiss of death that they were for the men's hockey team in its Beanpot loss to BC Monday night; Harvard's tankers handily trounced Cornell, 213-19, to all-but-ensure their second-place position in the Ivy League.

"We did great," senior tri-captain John Blaney said. "We swam a lot of people in events that we're not used to swimming them in, and most of them did really well. It wasn't one of our bigger meets of the year, but it was a good way to begin the end of the season."

"We were mainly focusing on fine-tuning our own races and swimming people in off events," Osterhus said. "Everything worked out well for us."

To say that everything worked out well for the Crimson is an understatement; Harvard took first in 13 of the meet's sixteen events, and finished second in the each of the other three.

Taking first for the Crimson were freshman Bryon Butts in the 100 freestyle (47.67); sophomore Jeff Marks in the 500 freestyle; sophomore Jay Martin in the 100 butterfly (51.26); senior Craig Narveson in three-meter diving (299.02); freshman Carlos Zumpano in the 200 IM (1:57.19); and the 200 freestyle relay team of Butts and juniors Jan Esway, Tim Carver and junior Dave Heilman (1:23.70)

Also, sophomore Ben Swartout in the 1000 freestyle (9:34.53); Carver in the 200 freestyle (1:42.52); freshman Dave Valdez in the 100 backstroke (53.59); freshman Scott Campea in the 100 breaststroke (58.34); Blaney in the 200 butterfly (1:54.46); Osterhus in the 50 freestyle (22.04); and the 200 medley relay team of Carver, freshman David Schwartz, junior Brian Livingston, and Heilman (1:33.74).

Harvard will next host Pennsylvania on Saturday in its last Ivy League dual meet of the year.

Once again, the Crimson are confident going into the meet.

"We haven't faced them [the Quakers] yet, but from everything that I've heard, we should beat them," Blaney said. "They are near the bottom of the league."

Harvard plans to approach the meet similarly to the way it approached the Cornell meet.

"We're going to swim people in a lot of different events and hope to get them qualified for Easterns in those events," Blaney said.

Throughout the next couple of weeks, the Crimson swimmers will unabashedly keep one eye on Easterns, their annual version of the reckoning, which will take place March 3-5.

"Easterns are what we pretty much prepare for the whole season," senior Richard Ou said earlier this season. "Some people from our team will go on to the NCAAs, and that will be bigger for them, but for most of us on the team, Easterns are what we gun for and what we judge our season on."

The team's mental preparation for the meet throughout the season is accompanied by a work-out schedule structured to give the Crimson maximum strength come meet time; the team gradually tapers the distance of its work-outs so that swimmers are at top speed at the end of the season.

"It's coming to that period now when we are swimming fewer and fewer yards in practice, working on our speed," Ou said. "We'll also shave down, so that we can cut as much time off as possible. Easterns is definitely the fastest meet of the year--if we qualify anybody for nationals, we generally do it in that meet."

Thus far this season, only McCarver has qualified for nationals, which will take place later this spring. He qualified in the 100 backstroke at the Yale-Princeton triangular.