Rookies Lead Way In Easy Harvard Win

Heading into the biggest meet of the regular season, the Harvard women’s swimming and diving team has proven that it’s a force to be reckoned with. The Crimson (5-0, 5-0 Ivy) preserved its undefeated season on Saturday, taking down Brown (2-2, 2-2), 199.5-99.5, at Blodgett Pool.

“I think we did really well, especially coming off of exams, because exams take a lot out of you mentally and physically,” sophomore Kate Mills said. “It was great to see us come out there, swim fast times, and swim like a team.”

Mills led the way once again with two individual wins, while Harvard’s talented crop of freshmen and sophomores provided the depth to overcome the Bears.

The Crimson started the meet with a bang, sweeping the top three places in the 200-yard medley relay.

Mills won the day’s first individual event, the 1000-yard freestyle, in 10:05.93. Freshman Kristi Korsberg and junior Katie Faulkner followed to give Harvard another sweep.

Korsberg’s strong performance was one of several from the Crimson’s rookie class.

Freshmen Meghan Leddy and Victoria Pratt recorded back-to-back dominating victories in the first half of the meet. Leddy won the 100-yard backstroke in 58.53, and Pratt followed up by taking first in the 100-yard breaststroke. Her time of 1:06.99 was nearly three seconds ahead of Brown’s top swimmer.

“[The freshmen] are a great force,” Mills said. “They’re really upbeat and they’re great to practice with.”

Freshman Helen Pitchik also won a race of her own, touching the wall in 2:21.63 in the 200-yard breaststroke.

“They’re a great group of girls,” junior co-captain Alexandra Clarke said. “They’ve been consistently contributing, and it’s really great to see them coming into their own in the last month of the season.”

The Harvard divers had a solid meet, highlighted by sophomore Marissa Ash’s performance. Ash placed first in the 1-meter event with 250.36 points, her first-ever collegiate dual-meet victory, and was runner-up at the 3-meter height.

Freshman Leslie Rea won the 3-meter competition with 258.45 points, and sophomore Jenny Reese was second in the 1-meter.

“The divers have really stepped up,” Clarke said. “They’ve been crucial to our success this season.”

Sophomores Christine Kaufmann and Katherine Pickard, along with Clarke, were the Crimson’s other individual winners.

Kaufmann took first in the 200-yard butterfly, finishing in 2:05.63, while Pickard won the 500-freestyle in 4:54.04. Freshman Catherine Zagroba competed in both events, placing third in the butterfly and second in the freestyle.

Clarke won the 100-yard butterfly, which was one of the meet’s more closely contested events, touching in 58.02. Freshman Monica Burgos was right behind her, finishing in 58.40.

Mills earned her second victory the last individual event of the day, finishing the 200-yard individual medley in 2:06.05.

And in the meet’s final race, sophomore Katy Hinkle anchored the 200-yard freestyle relay team to victory, sneaking past the Bears’ final swimmer to win the event by just .14 seconds. She was joined on the team by classmates Ali Slack and Holly Furman, along with freshman Margaret Flatt.

For the second consecutive meet, Harvard swam an unusual lineup to give the women a chance to try different events.

“There were some pretty impressive swims in that people were doing well in events they don’t usually train for,” Clarke said. “We’re really excited to see what people can do when they’re back in their best events this weekend.”

This weekend brings the annual Harvard-Yale-Princeton tri-meet, an event the team has been looking forward to since the season’s beginning.

“It’s the home stretch and this is what we’ve been working for all season,” Mills said. “It’s one of the big meets and we’re getting excited because it’s home. We want to go out and show them that we’re a really strong force.”

The Crimson will try to dethrone the defending Ivy champion Tigers in a matchup of the league’s only undefeated teams. Competition starts at 6 p.m. on Friday.

“I’m really confident going into it,” Clarke said. “I think this is the first time since I’ve been here that we have a real shot to win HYP and then Ivies, which is our real priority. It would be really nice to finish the regular season undefeated.”

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