W. Swimming Stops Brown, Improves to Perfect 4-0

Harvard women's swimming and diving: underdogs no more.

Going into this weekend it had been four years since Harvard (4-0, 4-0 Ivy) defeated Brown (1-1, 1-1) in either its dual-meet match-up or at the Ivy Championships, but that streak has now been snapped in a major way, as Harvard won 193-106 at Blodgett Pool on Friday.

Then yesterday, a tired Harvard squad took down a much-improved Columbia team (1-1, 1-1), headed by Olympic gold medalist Christina Teuscher, 176.5-123.5.

Harvard 193, Brown 106

Building off its confidence from great performances last week against Cornell and Dartmouth, Harvard stormed into Blodgett thirsty to establish itself as the Ivy favorite by taking away Brown's perfect season.

From the very first event, the Crimson seized control of the meet's momentum and never looked back.

In that medley relay, sophomore Janna McDougall gave Harvard an early lead with her 27.80 second backstroke split, senior Alexis Todor added to the lead with a sub-30 second breaststroke leg, freshman Anna Fraser used her 25.30 butterfly leg to buffer that slight lead, and sophomore Sarah Murphy brought home the freestyle leg to edge out Brown by less than one-tenth of a second.

Harvard may have won the relay by only a split-second, but the victory had a tidal wave effect.

"After losing the opening relay at last year's meet, we didn't want the first event to affect our momentum for the whole meet," senior Adrienne Leight said. "But it still got us really excited. That win set the wheels in motion for the next few events, which we performed really well in."

Those next few events left little doubt in the Bears' minds that this was the Crimson's day.

Brown superstar Katie Cowan was able to win the 1,000-freestyle, which followed the first relay, but sophomores Tina Weiner and Rebekah Lorenz, along with freshman Meaghan Casey, countered that victory by finishing second through fourth, cutting Brown's gain from the race down to one point.

(First place in each race is worth nine points, while second, third and fourth are worth four, three and two points, respectively.)

During the next five events the Crimson was simply unstoppable.

Harvard dominated the 200-freestyle with freshmen Jane Humphries and Victoria Chang finishing one-two with times of 1:54.51 and 1:54.62, respectively.

Next on tap was a tight finish in the 100-backstroke, with the top five finishers touching the wall within one second of each other. The Crimson wanted the win more, however, as McDougall and junior Angie Peluse powered ahead of the field to snake a one-two finish.

Feeding from that excitement, senior Alexis Todor continued her winning ways by blowing away the field by over a second in the 100-breaststroke with a 1:05.26 finish, her best time ever.

"I have been swimming well in practice and was really excited, so I knew now was the time to do it," said Todor, who also registered two victories against Cornell and Dartmouth.

These victories may have been impressive, but Brown still had some big guns left. The 200-butterfly has always been one of the Bears' strongest events, but freshman Lovisa Gustafsson stunned the Bears with her winning time of 2:03.63, a new Harvard record.

"Lovisa's 200-fly was incredible," senior Ana Cenanovic said. "We were all really pumped for this meet, but her breaking the school record unshaved put us over the top. After seeing that performance we knew we were on fire and couldn't lose."

Harvard indeed would do more than hold on to a victory after building a comfortable lead with these wins--it would demolish Brown.

The Crimson divers were a major contribution to the havoc wreaked on the Bears. Juniors Ali Shipley and Camila McLean swept both boards, continuing the Crimson blitzkrieg with an aerial assault of their own.

"We went into this meet knowing Brown's divers weren't that strong," McLean said. "We knew we should do well against them and it was great to help out the team."

Brown tried to mount a comeback with wins by sophomore Chuck Dawn in the 100-freestyle and Cowan in the 200-backstroke, but Harvard would have none of it.

The Crimson countered that with a one-two-three sweep of the 200-breaststroke, with Todor, sophomore Liz Baxter and freshman Rachael O'Beirne, to nail the Bears' coffin shut.

"We call ourselves 'The Force,' because we have four great breaststrokers," Todor said. "We know that we train hard and can go fast. We wanted to sweep the 200-breast and we did."

But Harvard still had a few more statements to make for its Ivy arch-rival.

Those statements came in the form of ousting individual Ivy champs in their best events. Gustafsson began by downing defending champ Cowan in the 500-freestyle with a time of 5:01.06, and Murphy and Fraser took her lead, as both defeated former champ Judy Koonstra in the 100-butterfly at 57.06 and 57.26, respectively.

Of course, it is only fitting that Harvard ended the meet the same way it started, winning the 400-freestyle relay.

This time McDougall, freshman Christin McConnell, junior Pia Chock, and Murphy didn't take any chances with a loss. They dominated the relay to win by nearly two seconds.

Harvard 176.5, Columbia 123.5

The win against Brown would have been enough to bring a smile to even the most cynical Harvard fan's face, but the team still had to face Teuscher and Columbia in New York.

As expected, the Crimson was tired, and even found itself behind going into the first diving break, but with the help of several key individual performances Harvard stormed back to earn the win.

Once again, Harvard's diving squad was crucial in the victory. McLean and Shipley finished one-two on both boards, giving the team some points it desperately needed.

"Going into Columbia the divers knew the swimmers would be tired," McLean said. "Because they had a lot rougher competition against Brown. So, we knew we had to step it up and get our job done to help offset that."

The divers' heroics certainly helped, but some of the swimmers overcame fatigue to register victories of their own.

Murphy came through in a big way, winning both of the sprint freestyle events and helping the Crimson win the final relay.

"If there was a swimmer of the meet against Columbia, it would have to be Sarah because she came through with gutsy performances when we really needed them," sophomore Liz Baxter said.

The pain was there against Columbia, as it is after any big meet, but wasn't enough to stop Harvard in its watershed weekend.

"We knew Columbia would be tough, especially since we were tired" said Gustafsson, who won the 500-freestyle against the Lions. "But we fought hard even though it hurt because we had to."

With these definitive victories, the shadows have been cleared and Harvard can finally expect to be the favorite going into the Ivy Championships.