Comeback Bid Squelched by Tigers

Three Crimson swimmers received the league’s top individual honors at this weekend’s Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships in East Meadow, N.Y., but troubles with its depth led the Crimson to a second-place finish behind Princeton.

With Cornell’s Michael Smit, sophomore Geoff Rathgeber and senior David Cromwell shared the Moriarty Award, the prize given to the top individual swimmer. Cromwell won three individual and three relay events in the last EISL Championships of his career, setting records in the 100-yard backstroke, the 200-yard backstroke, and the 200-yard medley relay.

Rathgeber set a school and meet record in the 200-yard individual medley while also tallying two other individual and three relay wins, one of them with the record-setting 200-yard medley team. Senior Danil Rybalko was named Diver of the Meet for his victories in the one- and three-meter diving events.

“Danil had such a great meet,” Rathgeber said. “His dive on the 3-meter board was really impressive. It came down to the last dive, and he just stuck it. It was one of the best dives I’ve ever seen.”

Despite the outstanding performances by the Crimson, Princeton’s depth allowed it to overcome Harvard’s strong second-day performance, totaling 1,393 points to the Crimson’s 1,287.

After finishing the first day behind Princeton, Harvard came out strong on Friday to win five of the eight events. Rathgeber’s record-breaking performance in the 200-yard individual medley, which qualified him for the NCAA ‘A’ cut while setting a team and meet record, was the Crimson’s best performance of the first day.

“The first day was a little rough for us, and we knew it was going to be,” Rathgeber said. “But, we got really psyched and...we stormed back against Princeton on Friday night.”

Trailing by more than 100 points entering Friday’s races, the Crimson cut the Tigers’ lead to 19 after the 200 breaststroke. Harvard opened the day with a record performance in the 200 medley relay, as Cromwell, Rathgeber, freshman Bill Jones, and sophomore Pat Quinn combined to finish in 1:27.67—setting a new team and meet record.

The Crimson continued to dominate, winning the next three events. Freshman Eric Lynch snagged first in the 1000-yard freestyle, finishing only 0.03 seconds ahead of Princeton’s Robert Griest. Sophomore Sam Wollner also finished fifth.

“There’s just one gear for [Lynch] when he swims, and it’s not often that he runs people down,” Cromwell said. “He just kept chipping away the whole race, and all of a sudden, he touched the wall just ahead of the Princeton swimmer. The place went crazy—it’s hard to have a nine-minute race be the most exciting one of the meet, but it was.”

Rathgeber followed with another victory, scoring a win in the 400 IM to qualify for the NCAA ‘B’ cut.

In one of Harvard’s most impressive team performances of the night, Cromwell led four Crimson swimmers in the finals of the 100 butterfly, where he notched an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying time of 47.87.

Finally, in the fifth race of the night, Cornell’s Smit, a junior, broke up the Crimson run of victories with an impressive performance of his own, breaking the meet record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:35.42.

Cromwell got the Crimson back into the winner’s column with another record-breaking performance, this time in the 100 backstroke. He broke the team- and EISL-record time of 47.02 by just three-hundredths of a second. The record was personally important as well—it had belonged to Dave Berkoff, one of his age-group coaches in Cromwell’s home state of Montana.

“[Cromwell] really embodies everything it takes to be a hardworking, dominant swimmer,” Rathgeber said. “He’s a tremendous swimmer, and performs exceptionally every time. This weekend, he put on a show and left everything in the pool.”

Harvard finished with a second-place finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a team of senior Mark Knepley, Jones, Quinn, and freshman David Guernsey.

The Crimson went into the third day of competition trailing the Tigers, 882-841.5, with a chance to grab the title from Princeton. Harvard could not overcome the Tiger’s depth, however, as Princeton totaled five finalists in the 200 butterfly.

Lynch notched his second win of the meet in Saturday’s first race, the 1650-yard freestyle. The freshman qualified for the NCAA ‘B’ cut with his time of 15:18.67, while Rathgeber notched another win in the 200 breaststroke.

Although the Crimson finished the meet with a victory in the 400 freestyle relay with a team of Cromwell, Rathgeber, Knepley, and Quinn, it was not enough to overcome the Tigers’ lead.

“After the 200 fly, our coach said it best when he said, ‘They may have put a dagger through our score, but not through our hearts,’” Cromwell said.

Added Rathgeber, “The seniors ended their Harvard careers strongly, and we’re definitely going to miss them.”

Although the majority of the swimmers are now done with the season, Cromwell and Rathgeber will continue to train for the NCAA Championships, which will take place on March 23-25 in Atlanta, Ga.

—Staff writer Julie R. S. Fogarty can be reached at fogarty2@fas.harvard.edu.