Freshmen Help Undersized Squad Earn Outsized Results

They may have been younger and smaller than usual, but the Harvard women’s swimming and diving team still managed to be a dominant force in the Ivy League.

The Crimson finished the season with a 6-1 dual meet record, a second-place finish at Ivies, a No. 2 ranking among mid-major teams, and nine new school records.

Harvard handily beat every team in the Ivy League except Princeton, who handed the team its first loss in the season’s final dual meet and then claimed victory again at the Ivy League Championships.

The Crimson won all of its dual meets by an average of almost 70 points, including a 199-96 victory over Penn in which Harvard did not lose a single race.

Leading the charge for the Crimson was an extremely talented Class of 2011. Freshman Kate Mills was one of just three Harvard athletes to qualify for NCAAs, capping a season in which she set a school record in the 200 IM (2:01.72) and earned three top-eight finishes at Ivies.

Mills just missed All-American status in the 200 butterfly, placing 19th at NCAAs with a season-best time of 1:58.04. She was second in the Ivy League in the event.

“It’s sometimes really hard to instill in the freshmen that it’s all about the team,” co-captain Lindsay Hart said. “But every freshman this year really embraced the idea of the team. Right off the bat, it was one of the easiest and most fun groups to lead.”

In that spirit, freshmen made up the majority of each of the Crimson’s three record-setting freestyle relay teams.

Freshman Katy Hinkle turned in some impressive performances of her own, setting two school records in the 50 (23.04) and 100 (50.68) freestyle en route to claiming the Ivy League title in the 50.

But as impressive as the freshmen were, it took some veteran leadership to help Harvard maintain its accustomed level of success.

Sophomore Alexandra Clarke and senior diver Samantha Papadakis were the Crimson’s other two qualifiers for the NCAA Championships in March. Clarke, who re-set her own school records in the 1000 and 1650 freestyle, wound up in 21st in her signature event, the 1650, at NCAAs.

“I was a little disappointed in my performance,” Clarke said after the event. “I swam faster at our meet in Georgia [in December] and at Ivies.”

Papadakis finished her Harvard career in style, notching her highest-ever NCAA finish—17th place in the 3-meter event, just one place shy of becoming an All-American. She won the 1-meter event at Ivies.

Co-captain Jackie Pangilinan turned in another impressive season as the Crimson’s top breaststroker, rewriting her 100 breaststroke school record (1:03.25) and collecting her third 200 breaststroke title at Ivies.

Hart, slowed by a dislocated kneecap suffered in December, managed to rebound to take fourth and fifth in the 200 and 100 backstroke, respectively, at Ivies.

“The best part was that I knew my team was behind me, and no matter what I did, they’d be proud of me,” Hart said.

“Across the board, we couldn’t ask for more from our team,” Pangilinan added after Ivies. “From freshmen to seniors, everyone has been amazing.”

—Staff writer Kate Leist can be reached at kleist@fas.harvard.edu.