M. Swimming Toys With Brown, Anticipates Tougher Meets

Although the Harvard men's swimming team beat Brown easily on Sunday, 194-103, and finished first in 12 of 16 events, the meet itself was anything but mundane.

Several of the Harvard swimmers tested themselves by swimming in events not usually their own. In the 200 Breaststroke, senior Mike Kiedel, who is primarily a freestyler, surprised his teammates by keeping up with co-captain Dave Schwartz, the top swimmer in the event at 2:05.36. Kiedel finished just a half-second behind Schwartz.

Junior Greg Wriede and co-captain Eric Matuszak swam in the 500 Freestyle, an off event for both of them, and took first and second respectively with impressive times, outpacing the closest Brown swimmer by over 11 seconds.

Even though many swimmers were not racing in their usual events, the fact that they did so well showed the strength of the team.

"We all swam our off events and we still beat them pretty badly," said freshman Mike Groves. "It just shows how strong this team really is. We hope to continue this dominance at Easterns. It should be really exciting."

Several swimmers were also very pleased with their swims in their usual events. Junior Alex Kurmakov finished first with a time of 21.11 seconds in the 50 Freestyle and senior Joaquim Ribeiro won the 200 Butterfly, finishing just ahead of sophomore Brian Cadman. Freshman Dan Barnes also had what senior Matt Cornue called a "breakthrough" performance, recording a time of 46:56 to finish second behind Cornue in the 100 Freestyle.

Despite the many accomplishments of the team, much of the focus of this meet was really on freshman Will Oren. As part of a Harvard swimming tradition, every year the team elects a freshman to be the Iron Man. This title is awarded to the individual who adds the most to the team both in and out of the water.

Whoever is chosen to be the Iron Man must swim every single event during the swim meet. In addition, he must continue to swim during any significant break between swimming events, such as those taken to announce the diving scores.

"It was a grueling event," said Cadman, last year's Iron Man.

This year, the team voted for Oren to be the Iron Man and all eyes were on him for much of the meet. Despite the fact that his main events are Freestyle and Butterfly, Oren did incredibly well in every event and rarely fell far behind the rest of the pack.

Even when the meet was over and the team completed the tradition by carrying Oren along the pool deck on a stretcher and dumping him back into the water on the other side of the pool, the Iron Man of this year had the strength left to smile and wave to his fans.

Despite the ease of Sunday's victory, the team looks forward to more competitive meets coming up in the future.

"As a team we are obviously excited about any win, Brown being no exception," said junior Terry Dougherty. "However, at this point in the season, our dual meets are not our number one priority. Our Ivy League schedule gives us a chance to prepare for the greater challenges that lie ahead--the H-Y-P meet in February, the Eastern Championships and NCAAs in March."