Swimmers Have Titles to Defend

Last season, the Harvard men’s and women’s swim teams compiled a stellar 18-0 dual record, took home two Ivy titles, and honored six All-Americans at season’s end. The women’s team earned Ivy gold for the first time since 1992, while the men reclaimed the EISL crown from Princeton.
Both squads start 2005-2006 with  plans for more of the same.
MEN
The 2004-2005 edition of the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team achieved levels of success that were both impressive and, more importantly, difficult to repeat.
The Crimson captured the 2005 EISL team title for the eighth time in 10 seasons, winning the Ivy League crown in the process and securing an undefeated dual season. The team also placed fourth at the perennially stacked Georgia Invitational and sent four representatives to the NCAA Championships. But after a season of such incredible success, Harvard will need to replace some outstanding departing senior talent.
No longer will the Crimson be able to count on clutch performances from its invaluable senior class of 2005. John Cole ’05 was a four-time All-American in the 1650-yard freestyle, and James Lawler ’05 earned Honorable Mention All-America honors at the 2005 Championships.
“First off, we lost John Cole, one of the best swimmers in Ivy League history,” senior co-captain Dave Cromwell said. “The fact that he took a year off to train for Olympic qualifying is a testament to the type of swimmer he is. We also lost James Lawler, an Ivy League Champion and school record holder, as well as Andy Krna who provided great leadership as a captain.”
But Harvard has much to look forward to in the 2005-2006 season. The team boasts several returning champions who will look to raise their game in a new season. Sophomore Geoff Rathgeber and Cromwell return from appearances at the NCAAs last year, where both were named Honorable Mention All-America. Rathgeber won the EISL 200-yard individual medley title as a freshman and took home third place in the 400 IM a year ago.
“Sophomore Sam Wollner got his first Olympic trial experience and we are definitely looking for him to build on that success this season,” Cromwell said.
However, the team is also expecting a lot from a deep freshman class, despite their lack of race experience.
“This weekend will really give us an idea of what to look for out of these freshmen,” senior co-captain Bill Cocks said.
Cocks emerged last season as the team’s and one of the league’s top breaststrokers, a role he will look to maintain this season.
Despite the strength of both its returning swimmers and newcomers, the Harvard men know that their Ivy League foes will be in hot pursuit of the EISL title currently in Crimson possession. Princeton, which last claimed the EISL crown in 2004, finished second to the Crimson in last year’s EISL meet.  
“We expect tough competition from everyone, but Princeton is far and away our swimming rival,” Cromwell said. “I would not expect that to change this year.”
WOMEN
For the Harvard’s swimming women, it’s a pretty tough task to put a magical 2004-2005 season behind them and focus on the here and now.
The team won its first Ivy League championship since 1996, breaking rival Princeton’s five-year streak in the process. The trip to the Ivy podium for the first time in almost a decade was undoubtedly a sweet one.
However, this team is not one to rest on its laurels.
Like the men’s squad, the women need to replace a deep core of senior talent in order to stay on top.
“All our seniors were contributors both in and out of the pool,” junior co-captain Jessica Davidson said. “We will especially miss Molly Ward, Emily Stapleton and Anne Osmun.”
Despite the loss, the team returns several contributors who are expected to pick up the slack.
“Every year certain people will step up in ways we don’t know now,” Davidson said. “We do expect even greater contributions from Jackie Pangilinan, who swam in the 2004 Olympics, Sam Papadakis, who competed in NCAAs, as well as Lindsay Hart and Noelle Bassi, who brought a lot to the team last year.”
Bassi and Pangilinan earned Honorable Mention All-America honors last year, and Hart was one of the league’s top backstrokers as a freshman last year. Distance swimmers Kelly and Stacy Blondin and breaststroker/freestyler Bridget O’Conner will once again provide valuable points for Harvard.
Yet, the team is counting on more than its upperclassmen to maintain the team’s winning ways.
A strong core of freshmen joins the Crimson with high expectations.
“We have a lot of depth in this year’s freshman class,” Davidson said. “We won’t really know who is going to make big contributions until after the first meets but I am really excited about what Emily Jellie brings to the table. I think our distance program will be a tremendous strength of our team this year.”
Despite the team’s talent, the Crimson knows that the rest of the league will be after the title it captured last year. Harvard routed the second-place Tigers by 226 points, finishing off its dominant undefeated season in compelling fashion. This season, however, Harvard looks to repeat against a deep Ivy field.
“I expect the competition to be very tough this year,” Davidson said, “especially from Princeton. The Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet is one that we focus intently on training for each season.”