SEASON RECAP: Harvard Comes Up Just Short in EISL Race

Despite a dominant season in which it swept through the majority of league competition, the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team could not overcome league foe Princeton, as the Crimson finished second to the Tigers in both the regular season and the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League Championships.

Harvard dropped a disappointing early-season meet to Cornell in November but responded with four straight dual-meet victories.

In the annual meet between Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, the Crimson rose above the Bulldogs (184-169), but failed to catch the Tigers (163-190). Harvard has not defeated Princeton in its DeNunzio Pool since 1983.

Crimson swimmers finished first in 19 events at HYP—one more than the combined total of the other two squads—but the Tigers managed to snatch enough second- and third-place finishes to stand atop the podium. Harvard’s distance swimmers claimed crucial points for the squad, as junior Sam Wollner led a 1-2-3 finish in the 1650 freestyle, followed by sophomore Eric Lynch and freshman Alex Meyer. In the 500 freestyle, Lynch and Wollner once again grabbed the top two spots, although this time Lynch touched the wall first. In addition to victories in all four relays, the Crimson was bolstered by two individual wins by junior Geoff Rathgeber and two top-three finishes by junior Pat Quinn.

Three weeks later, Harvard traveled back to Princeton and fell 1220.5-1405 to finish in second place despite the fact that Princeton finished first in only one event. Rathgeber trounced the competition in the 200-yard individual medley, 400-yard individual medley, and the 200-yard backstroke, setting pool records in all three and a meet record in the 200-yard individual medley. The junior also placed second in the 400-yard medley relay and the 200-yard free relay. Rathgeber tied with sophomore Alex Righi of Yale for most individual points (96), and the two shared the Most Outstanding Swimmer Award for meet.

“Princeton was obviously very deep and that’s what won it for them,” Rathgeber said. “We lost a lot of key players last year. To come out of that season and hold our own against every other team in the Ivy League and finish second at Easterns was a pretty big accomplishment.”

Although the rest of the team hung up the goggles for the season after Easterns, Rathgeber traveled to Minnesota as the team’s sole representative at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. Swimming in three races over three days, Rathgeber notched two top-20 finishes and earned enough points (six) for Harvard to finish 34th as a team. The junior placed 11th in the 200-yard individual medley and 20th in the 400-yard individual medley, earning All-American honors.

“It’s great to have him represent the team at the national meet,” co-captain Brian Fiske said. “To have someone of that caliber on the team is something that makes the rest of us proud.”

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