AOTW: Chang Makes An Early Mark

It seems to happen this way every year.

Harvard’s women’s swimming team rolls into the first meet of the season against Ancient Eight swimming weaklings Dartmouth and Cornell and emerges unscathed, an easy victory in hand.

But another trend has begun to develop that goes hand-in-hand with each overwhelming victory.

Each time, some as yet undiscovered freshman waltzes into her first collegiate competition and catches almost everyone off guard by winning multiple individual events and helping the team to victory.

Last year it was Jane Evans. This year it was freshman LeeAnn Chang. Both times, the dominant swimmer coasted to victory in butterfly and breaststroke.

Chang didn’t waste much time in making her mark, turning in an impressive split in the opening medley relay.

Teaming with juniors Alli Bates and Molly Ward and captain Erica DeBenedetto in the Crimson ‘A’ relay for the 200-yard medley event, Chang’s butterfly leg propelled her team to a time of 1:47.17—just one-tenth of a second off Teagle Hall’s record pace set back in 2000.

“The relay was really neat,” Chang said. “That was the first time I got to be in a [collegiate] relay.”

But that certainly didn’t faze Harvard’s latest freshman sensation.

The relay finished 2.48 seconds ahead of the Crimson ‘B’ team and 2.7 seconds in front of the Big Green’s ‘A’ relay, allowing Harvard to lay claim to an early lead.

Chang wasn’t nearly finished. She would get that one-tenth of a second back.

Four events later, competing in the 100-yard breaststroke, Chang blazed through the water, touching the wall in 1:05.82—one-tenth of a second faster than the pool’s previous record set back in 1988.

She bested Dartmouth’s Dana Charles by 1.53 seconds, rapidly creating space as she came down the home stretch.

“The 100-breast was pretty even,” Chang said. “On maybe the last 25 [yard stretch] I started to get a little bit ahead.”

Ironically, the other pool record on the day was set by Evans, who set the record in the 200-meter butterfly.

Eight events after her record setting performance, Chang struck again.

Seeking to capture her third race in as many chances, Chang swam away with the 100-meter butterfly, finishing just five-tenths of a second off the pool record in a time of 56.83, beating sophomore Erin Mulkey and senior Kate Nadeau to the wall by less than two seconds.

Still, Chang has kept her early-season success in perspective, noting the skill of her opponents in her first taste of in-season college swimming.

“They’re probably not as strong as this Friday’s opponent Brown, but they do have talented swimmers,” Chang said. “They just don’t have the depth that we do.”

—Staff writer Timothy J. McGinn can be reached at mcginn@fas.harvard.edu.