Captain Does It All

An extremely successful nationally-competitive athlete, respected team leader, and talented student may seem like a combination that is too good to be true. That is, unless you’ve met Geoff Rathgeber.

Rathgeber, a co-captain of the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team, helped lead his squad to unprecedented success—including a perfect conference record.

Along the way, he also made a name for himself on both the Ivy League and national swimming circuit by setting numerous records and consistently outperforming his opponents in both regular and postseason meets.

“Being able to train with Geoff has been a great experience, because he basically sets the bar for competitive exellence and sets the standard for what can be achieved for an Ivy League athlete,” fellow co-captain Sam Wollner said. “I think he’s an inspiration to everybody he’s around.”

This year, Rathgeber claimed seven Ivy League event titles at the Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League (EISL) Championships to help set up the over-300-point margin that separated Harvard and second place Princeton.

During the meet, Rathgeber touched the wall first in the 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 breaststroke, 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 200 medley relay, and 400 medley relay, giving him 21 Ivy League titles in his career.

But more impressive than the quantity of Rathgeber’s first-place finishes was the dominating fashion in which he attained them. Rathgeber swam five of his seven events in record-breaking times and received two NCAA “A” bids and one NCAA “B” bid for his three individual races, asserting his superiority over other Ivy League swimmers and raising his performance on the national level.

Rathgeber also represented his team exceptionally well in his final meet as a Harvard swimmer, the NCAA Championships. For the second year in a row, Rathgeber received All-American status for his performance in the 200 IM, finishing in sixth place with a time of 1:45.61. He also placed 11th in the 400 IM, swimming the race in 3:47.65 and earning an All-American honorable mention in the event.

Rathgeber’s individual successes this season led to seven All-Ivy League First Team selections. Rathgeber also achieved three celebrated personal honors towards the end of the season—he received the Harold Ulen Award for an athlete at a career high-point and Philip Moriarty Award for most outstanding athlete at the EISL Championships, and was recently selected to the Academic All-American First Team.

“That’s a remarkable feat to be able to do what he’s done academically and athletically,” head coach Tim Murphy said. “He put as much into the team as he did into his own goals and aspirations, which speaks very highly of him, and I think he’s reaped the benefits of his work.”

Rathgeber, like his coach, credited his individual achievements to his hard work and determination while noting the contribution of his teammates and the swimming environment at Harvard to his accomplishments.

“A lot of my success from this year comes from our team goals and because of the way that we decided to swim,” Rathgeber said. “The team goals and the hard work my teammates were putting in made me work harder in the pool.”

Beyond his athletic prowess, Rathgeber also made his presence felt outside of the pool. His First-Team Academic All-American selection speaks to his successes in the classroom, but Rathgeber also excelled as a captain and gained the respect and admiration of his teammates.

“I’ve had more vocal captains at different points in time, but it’s easy to say that when Geoff speaks the guys listen,” Murphy said. “He cares about how the guys look at him and his being a good teammate as much as he values the individual awards he’s received.”

Though Rathgeber’s exceptional Harvard swimming career has come to an end, he and the sport have not parted ways for good. Rathgeber is currently training for the Olympic trials, where he will compete in the 200 IM, 400 IM, and 100 breaststroke as he vies for a chance to represent himself—and Harvard athletics—on the global stage.

—Staff writer Alexandra J. Mihalek can be reached at amihalek@fas.harvard.edu.