Harvard Takes Fourth in Georgia

The Harvard men’s swimming and diving team held its own this past weekend, taking home a solid fourth place finish at the elite Georgia Invitational.

The Crimson flew to the Bulldogs’ home pool in Athens, Ga. this past Friday to match up against three perennial swim powerhouses, including two top-10 teams.

Harvard finished the three-day contest with a score of 558 points, following No. 9 Georgia (1,374 points), No. 4 Florida (758 points), and Denver (743 points).

Freshman Owen Wurzbacher was the star of the meet for the Crimson, taking home Harvard’s only first-place individual event finish of the weekend.

Wurzbacher claimed the 100-yard breaststroke in 56.91, barely edging out Georgia’s Joe Redmon for a meet-best time.

“We were really pumped up about [Wurzbacher’s race],” freshman Greg Roop said. “It gave us a little bit of momentum and got the ball rolling for the rest of the meet.”

While Wurzbacher’s victory was the only gold taken home by the Crimson, the Harvard men recorded several impressive finishes throughout the contest.

The Crimson started out the weekend strong, with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Freshman Brendan McIntee, Roop, sophomore Niall Janney, and senior Rick McKellar combined for a time of 1:25.94 in the event.

Harvard also placed fifth in the 200-yard medley relay, touching the wall in 1:34.84.

Wurzbacher, junior Douwe Yntema, sophomore Ross Ford, and McKellar made up the Crimson team.

Co-captain Alex Meyer claimed another fifth-place finish for Harvard in the 500-yard freestyle, with a time of 4:28.98. In addition, the Ithaca native, who is known for his impressive distance races, swam a personal-best in the 200-yard freestyle event as the only Harvard competitor to make the championship heat.

The Crimson recorded another fifth-place relay finish, this time in the 800-yard freestyle relay. The team of Yntema, McIntee, sophomore Matt McLean, and senior Mason Brunnick combined for 6:50.26 in the event.

Harvard followed suit in the 400-yard freestyle relay, as the team of Janney, McLean, McIntee, and McKellar claimed fifth in the event. The Crimson swimmers touched the wall in 3:06.88.

Wurzbacher earned additional points for Harvard in the 200-yard breaststroke. The sophomore broke the Crimson’s fifth-place trend, finishing fourth in the event with a time of 2:05.90.

Junior Zac Ranta and freshman Michael Stanton rounded out the Georgia Invitational for Harvard. Ranta placed fourth in the 1-meter diving event with 288.65 points, and Stanton took home fifth in platform diving with 250.65 points.

The Crimson was pleased with its ability to compete against some of the best swimming and diving teams in the nation.

“There’s a lot of better swimming out there, so it’s good to get out of the Ivy League once in a while,” said Meyer.

The Georgia Invitational is Harvard’s penultimate non-Ivy League competition, with a dual meet with the cross-town rival Boston University scheduled for January.

In addition to the advantages of facing high-caliber national contenders this week, the Harvard swimmers and divers are now better able to gauge areas for needed work before the Crimson’s next competition.

“There’s definitely a lot of areas we could improve in,” said Roop. “[The Georgia Invitational] gave us a good idea of what we need to do to improve for the rest of the season and get ready for the Ivy League championship.”

Harvard will attempt to use what it learned this past weekend in Georgia to defend its current undefeated Ivy League record when it returns after a month-long break to go head-to-head with the Quakers of Penn.

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