W. Swimming Defeats Longtime Nemesis Brown

It looks like this year may not be more of the same for the Harvard women’s swimming and diving team.

Despite winning only seven of 15 contested events, the Crimson upset traditional Ivy swimming power Brown 170-130 on Friday in Providence. For each of the past four seasons, Harvard has finished behind both Princeton and Brown in the Ivies.

“We are so excited to have beaten them finally,” said co-captain Jane Humphries. “And its a huge feat to beat them in their pool because their fans are psycho.”

The Harvard senior swimmers dyed their hair crimson in a show of school spirit to motivate the underclassmen.

While the victory for the Crimson certainly is not equivalent to winning the Ivy Championship, it may forecast greater success later on down the road. The Crimson has made a crack in the glass ceiling that has pinned the team in third place or worse for the past few years.

“One of the things that our coach was pointing out was that it’s not the end of our season,” said co-captain Rachael O’Beirne. “And we have a lot of things that we still need to accomplish if our goal is to win Ivies.”

Harvard (3-0, 3-0 Ivy) lost both the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay to Brown (0-1, 0-1) but captured enough of the top spots in individual events for the victory.

“Depth is our best asset,” Humphries said. “It came down to the best team, not the team with the best individual swimmers.”

In particular, strong efforts in the butterfly, breaststroke and individual medley enabled the Crimson to come out on top.

Freshman Jane Evans captured first place in three races for the second meet in a row.

“Jane is a crucial component for our team,” Humphries said. “She is very nonchalant about it.”

In the 200-yard butterfly, Evans led a Harvard sweep of spots one through three with a time of 2:04.31. Right behind were junior Kate Nadeau at 2:04.58 and sophomore Whitney Henderson at 2:08.39.

Evans next took the 200-yard breaststroke for the second consecutive week in a time of 2:23.56, edging out co-captain Rachael O’Beirne, who finished second in 2:24.54 and junior Erica DeBenedetto, who clocked in at 2:27.20 to round out the top three.

In the individual medley, Evans finished her day in fine form, taking first in a time of 2:07.77, nearly two seconds ahead of Humphries, who finished second in 2:09.75.

Complementing her third place finish in the 200- breaststroke, DeBenedetto captured first in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:06.51. Finishing two spots behind was O’Beirne, who touched in at a time of 1:07.14.

In the 100-yard butterfly, senior and event record-holder Anne Fraser barely defeated Nadeau, clocking in at 57.75. Nadeau took second, only two hundredths of a second later.

Led by sophomore Emily Stapleton, who took first in a time of 2:05.35, the Crimson dominated the 200-yard backstroke, taking four of the top five positions.

“[Stapleton] was angry that Brown was chanting 1-2-3 after the 100- back,” O’Beirne said. “And I think she used that as motivation in her 200 backstroke and she completely dominated that event.”

Senior Vicki Chang captured first in the 200-yard freestyle in a time of 1:54.43 two slots ahead of junior Ellie Humphries who finished in 1:54.93, just three hundredths of a second behind the runner-up.

The Crimson returns to the water against both Pennsylvania and Columbia in a tri-meet on Dec. 7 in Philadelphia.

W. Swimming 170, BROWN 130

(all distances in yards)

200 Medley Relay: 2. Harvard A 1:47:78 (Bates, DeBenedetto, Fraser, Ward), 3. Harvard B 1:49.32 (Brethauer, Lee, Evans, Mulkey). 1000 Freestyle: 2. White 10:16.45, 3. Greco 10:24.69. 200 Freestyle: 1. Chang 1:54.43, 3. Humphries 1:54.93. 100 Breaststroke: 1. DeBenedetto 1:06.51, 3. O’Beirne 1:07.14. 200 Butterfly: 1. Evans 2:04.31, 2. Nadeau 2:04.58, 3. Henderson 2:08.39. 50 Freestyle: 2. Ward 24.30. 100 Freestyle: 2. Ward 52.86. 200 Backstroke: 1. Stapleton 2:05.35, 2. Bright 2:07.81. 200 Breaststroke: 1. Evans 2:23.56, 2. O’Beirne 2:24.54, 3. DeBenedetto 2:27.20. 500 Freestyle: 2. White 5:03.83, 3. Chang 5:04.44. 100 Butterfly: 1. Fraser 57.75, 2. Nadeau 57.77. 200 IM: 1. Evans 2:07.77, 2. Humphries 2:09.75. 400 Freestyle Relay: 2. Harvard A 3:35.75.