W. Swim. Takes One Of Two

Going into this weekend, the Harvard women's swimming and diving team realized that it could breeze by Penn, but it also knew Princeton would be tough. Still, the Crimson battled for every point in its pursuit of an upset.

The formidable Tigers, who shaved nearly half of their squad, proved more than the Crimson could handle as they muscled their way to a 180-120 win on Saturday. But Harvard bounced back, sailing smoothly past Ivy bottom-dweller Penn yesterday.

Penn was no threat to Harvard as the Crimson won every race, usually by several body lengths. Harvard even began to swim events unofficially after the meet was clinched so as not to run up the score.

Some excellent swims came from freshman Lillian Brown, who stopped a possible Penn victory by narrowly winning the 400 Individual Medley. Sophomore Ana Cenanovic led a 1-2-3 raid in the 100 Backstroke, while co-captain Jen Steffen won both middle distance Freestyle events, the 200 and 500.

"The Penn meet was a lot less intense than Princeton," Brown said. "It actually felt pretty subdued. The meet was a good opportunity to race in a low pressure environment, especially after the excitement of the Princeton meet."

Despite the steamrolling of Penn, the Princeton dual meet clearly dominated the team's thoughts for the weekend, as it prepares to face tough competition at the Ivy Championships, which begin in less than a month.

"Our strategy for Princeton was to remain focused on our performances regardless of the score and to swim the way we know we are capable of swimming," Steffen said. "We wanted to win, but we were still excited that we raced well. It was good to have some close races because every point will be important for us at Ivies."

The score against the Tigers truly does not indicate Harvard's performance in some outstanding races.

"Princeton is a really strong team this year," Cenanovic said. "But we were not willing to go down without making them fight for each place. Princeton is not invincible, and we proved it by beating them in some events that they previously dominated."

Some highlights included a one-two finish in the 200 Freestyle, an event especially strong for both teams. Sophomore Nancy Jo led the charge, winning the event as Steffen finished close behind for runner-up.

Freshman Jessica Yin also made great strides in her 100 Breaststroke to take the victory, as sophomore Alexis Todor finished strong to out-touch a shaved Tiger for second place. And senior Keiko Iwahara showed her mind-boggling speed, winning both the 50 Freestyle and the 100 Butterfly, with junior Jocelyn Ludwick completing the sweep in the 50.

Unfortunately, these victories were too scarce for the Crimson. The encouraging performances, however, were still uplifting for the team.

"Seeing the women that tapered rise to the occasion gave the rest of us a significant amount of confidence," Steffen said. "We are under the tutelage of a new coach, and it was great to get the reassurance that her training tactics are going to be successful. With a new coach there is always some uncertainty going into big meets, but the performances this weekend showed us that we will do well at Ivies."