M. Swimming Sinks Brown

The only thing that beats embarrassing an Ivy League foe is when that opponent is Princeton or, even better, arch-rival Yale.

The Harvard men's swimming team (4-0, 2-0 Ivy) dove back into the league schedule last weekend with a convincing 163.5-78.5 victory over Brown (3-4, 1-1), but as the Crimson was doubling up the Bears it was also preparing for its biggest dual meet of the regular season. Both Yale and Princeton will take on Harvard at Blodgett Pool tomorrow and Saturday nights at 6 p.m.

"H-Y-P is one of the last real tests before Easterns," said senior Marek Biegluk, who won the 200 breaststroke. "I was a little tired coming off of finals but I turned in a decent event against Brown in the breaststroke."

Biegluk also swam the breast stroke in the 400 medley relay, which he won along with juniors Michael Im and Jamey Waters and freshman Kyle Egan. The medley team of co-captain Ben Rosen, sophomore Ryan Egan and freshmen Mike Gentilucci and Dan Shevchik finished second.

Shevchik also set a personal record in his young collegiate career by winning the 200 backstroke event with a time of 1:48.76. His previous career high was 1:51.66.

"This was a breakthrough race for me," Shevchik said. "I had been struggling with the backstroke all season but it was intersession, I felt relaxed and I was able to shave a couple of seconds off my time."

Another rookie, Leif Drake, won the 50 freestyle in 21.42 seconds, edging out Brown junior Noah Cirincione by .04 seconds.

"The 50 free is the shortest race and it's always a crapshoot," Drake said. "You just dive in and somebody gets lucky. I never saw the guy from Brown and I didn't realize I had won until I hit the wall."

Drake also won the 400 freestyle relay along with Waters, senior Brian Swinteck and junior Matt Fritsch.

"That was our second best time this season as a relay," Drake said. "Everyone was pleased because we were working hard all week. This week we're rested and ready to go against Yale and Princeton."

Junior Dan Barnes was also preparing for H-Y-P weekend when he won the 100 freestyle in 46.26 seconds, .07 seconds faster than classmate Adam Shaw.

"The race was very exciting," Barnes said. "I could see Adam in the lane next to me the whole way. It was an indication of what I and the others can do against Ivy competition."

Barnes and Drake are two of the swimmers who will shave and taper this weekend to see if they can make for the Eastern Seaboard Intercollegiate League championship March 2-4, and possibly for the NCAA Tournament later in the month. Both tournaments have specific qualifying times, and Barnes hopes shaving will give him a chance to reach those times this weekend.

"Shaving is exciting because you have the opportunity to swim really fast and it gets you psyched up for your race," Barnes said. "On the other hand, you have to shave your legs."

Senior Tim Martin, also a Crimson editor, won the 500 and 1000 freestyle events. Martin has already qualified for NCAA's. Freshman Cory Walker won the 200 fly, senior Jan Sibbersen won the 200 freestyle and junior Will Oren won the 200 individual medley.