Harvard Starts the Season in Convincing Fashion

The Harvard women’s swimming and diving team made a big splash on Saturday, starting fast and never looking back against Cornell and Dartmouth. When all was said and done, the Crimson decisively defeated the Big Red, 198-97, and the Big Green, 181-114, in its first meet of the season at home in Blodgett Pool.

“Everybody was so pumped up,” sophomore Kate Mills said. “There was so much excitement behind the blocks. Everyone raced really well, and it was a fun way to start the season.”

Entering the year with ambitious aspirations after finishing second in the Ivy League last year, Harvard certainly met early expectations.

In the 14 events that the Crimson participated in, 13 of the 14 races ended with Harvard swimmers touching the wall first.

“We’ve been working really hard in practice,” junior Natalia Festa said. “I think that we’ve brought a lot of confidence into the meet.”

“I would say that we approach every meet as a chance for us to do our best in whatever we’re competing in,” Mills said. “This is just the start of learning how to race again and getting back into the racing feeling.”

In the first event of the afternoon, the Crimson’s A and B teams finished 1-2 in the 200-yard medley relay with times of 1:46.99 and 1:47.59, respectively. The teams finished a whopping three seconds—an eternity in the world of swimming—ahead of the next team to come in. This turned out to be a clear harbinger of the success Harvard gained with ease in the coming events.

“I thought that this was one of the best events of the day for the team,” said Festa, one of the participants in the relay. “I think it was a great way to start out our season. Everybody was able to exhibit how hard they’ve been working in that race.”

“Everyone just busted out and was unbelievably fast,” Mills added.

Other notable events included the 1000-yard freestyle, the 200-yard backstroke, the 200-yard breaststroke, and the 200-yard individual medley.

In the 1000-yard freestyle, junior Alexandra Clarke, freshman Catherine Zagroba, and junior Katie Faulkner swept the event, with Clarke finishing an astonishing 39 seconds ahead of the first non-Crimson swimmer to touch the wall.

Sophomore phenom Katherine Pickard picked up where she left off last season by winning the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:04.19. She matched that finish with a victory in the 200-yard butterfly, fnishing the race in 2:04.52.

And though the Crimson was well ahead of both Dartmouth and Cornell by the time half of the events were completed, the swimmers did not let up.

One event later, Harvard brought home another 1-2 finish in the 200-yard breaststroke. Even more impressive was the fact that the two winning swimmers, freshmen Helen Pitchik and Victoria Pratt, were making their Crimson debuts in the meet. With times of 2:19.63 and 2:25.12, Pitchik and Pratt displayed complete dominance and showed great potential to fill the void left by departed breaststroker Jackie Pangilinan ’08.

In diving, Harvard also blew away the competition. The Crimson divers displayed an array of aerial somersaults, turns, and flips, drawing attention from the crowd.

Leading the way was sophomore Jenny Reese, who won both the 1-meter and 3-meter events. Classmate Anne Taylor finished second in 3-meter competition, while freshman Leslie Rea was third in the 1-meter event.

As well as Harvard performed throughout the afternoon, the swimmers felt that there was still room for improvement.

“I definitely think that our starts and finishes could be, not necessarily hugely improved, but we just have to remember to get our hands on the wall first,” Mills said. “There’s still a lot of fine tuning that needs to be done in everyone’s strokes.”

The Crimson will certainly have its hands full in the coming weeks, with a dual meet against Columbia and the Georgia Invitational rapidly approaching.

“The [Georgia Invitational] is the culmination of our meets at the midseason point, so we hope to bring some best times there and have some swimmers in the finals,” Mills said. “At the end of the season, of course, our goal is to win the Ivy Championship and ECAC Championships.”

With the talent and commitment in place for Harvard this season, it looks like those lofty goals are certainly within reach.