Smokin' on the Water: Both Swimming Teams Roll On

The Harvard women's swimming and diving team (7-3, 5-2 Ivy) finished off its dual meet season with somewhat of a technicality: it had to travel to New Hampshire to slaughter Cornell, 189-110, and Dartmouth, 186-113, last Friday.

Despite a few opening concerns because of Cornell's uncharacteristically fast performance at this meet last year, Harvard decisively distanced itself early by easily taking the opening 200-yard medley relay.

This relay was an all-freshman affair for the Crimson, with Janna McDougall, Liz Baxter, Sarah Murphy and Laura Wiegand joining forces in to outdistance the field by several yards to open up an early 12-4 lead on both teams. HARVARD  186 DARTMOUTH  113 HARVARD  189 CORNELL  110

Harvard's youthful talent didn't stop with the relay, as freshman Rebekah Lorenz led a 1-2 sweep in the 1,000-yard freestyle in a season-best time of 10:26.73.

"Swimming your season-best right before tapering is always a huge confidence booster," Lorenz said.

Lorenz was followed in this marathon event by sophomore Danielle Backes, who clocked in only a few body-lengths behind at 10:35.05.

"We really wanted to put the meet away early," Baxter said. "That way we could relax and just have fun with the meet."

If winning is considered fun, Baxter must have had a blast in the 100-yard breaststroke, in which she blew away the competition with her second best time of the season, 1:06.60.

"Liz's swim was incredible," sophomore Karen Milkoski said. "The atmosphere was not terribly exciting, but she got us all on our feet and pumped up for the rest of the meet."

The good times just kept on rolling for the Crimson as it swept the top four spots in the 100-yard butterfly. Sophomore Angie Peluse, who led the charge with a season-best 1:00.03, out-touched her teammate, freshmen Lauren Fabian, by only a few tenths of a second.

By this point in the meet, Harvard's main concern was losing its focus on performing well because of the enormous gap it had created between themselves and both Cornell and Dartmouth.

"It basically became a meet between Cornell and Dartmouth," Peluse said. "We just didn't want that to stop our own momentum because we still wanted to swim fast.

"And we talked about the possibility of this situation and what we would do to keep our heads in the meet beforehand, so we were ready for it."

The Crimson did indeed have more on its mind than simply beating the Big Green and the Big Red. It had several swimmers shaved due to the limited number of athletes allowed to partake in this month's Ivy Championships.

"The people who rested really attacked each of their races," co-captain Christen Deveney said. "They stepped up and lead the team by swimming well and keeping our energy level up out of the water."

Deveney used some of that energy to her advantage, as she pulled away from the competition in the last 50 yards of the 200-yard backstroke to take the victory.

With the dual-meet win on the books, the Crimson has only one more thing to think about--the Ivy Championships at Princeton from Feb. 25-27.

"We just have one meet to focus on now since all of the dual meets are finished," Deveney said. "This weekend has helped to make us a completely cohesive group that are all pushing for one goal, the big prize at Ivies."

Right now, Harvard is going to have to deal with Princeton and Brown, the meet's heavy favorites, as well as a flu bug that has swept the team over the past two weeks.

"Everyone is trying desperately to get well or stay healthy," Deveney said. "With everyone sick, Ivies will be that much more of a mental fight.

"But sometimes you just have to step up regardless of the specific circumstances and get the job done. I have complete confidence in the team to do just that."

This weekend certainly gave the team a lot of confidence, despite the sidelining of several key players due to sickness. Now the Crimson has only its final test to-prepare for, and it will finally be time to use every weapon.