Men's Swimming and Diving Clobbers Brown, 206-80

In one of its most dominating performances so far this season, the Harvard men’s swimming and diving team handled Brown from start to finish, earning a 206-80 victory on Thursday afternoon at Blodgett Pool.

Once the Crimson (4-0) jumped into the pool for the first time in the new year, it never looked back, earning its third consecutive Ivy victory in wire-to-wire fashion. Harvard won 14 out of 16 of the events on the day, including the first nine.

“I think it went well for us,” sophomore Willy Brophy said. “We’re in a strange spot in training because, though we just came off our training trip, we already have some big meets coming up. But I think the team pulled together, and we came out of the meet just fine.”

Freshman Mike Gaudiani agreed with Brophy’s sentiments, emphasizing the importance of the team’s training trip in Puerto Rico to its current successes.

“We definitely worked very hard at the training trip,” Gaudiani said. “Coming off of that that, swimming so well at a meet like this definitely signals that we are in pretty good shape and is a pretty good indicator as well for how well we are doing thus far in the season.”

The afternoon began with the 200-yard medley relay in which the Crimson “A” team, composed of sophomore Jack Pretto, freshmen Chuck Katis and Griffin Schumacher, and junior Greg Roop, took first place at 1:32.24. The Harvard “B” team finished second, coming in at 1:35.05.

The next race, the 1000-yard freestyle, featured a win by freshman Reed Snyder at a time of 9:41.51. It was the first collegiate victory for the rookie in the 1000-free.

Classmate Gaudiani continued the rookie winning streak when he cruised into first in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:42.15.

“I think I did pretty well,” Gaudiani said. “I was swimming in some of my off events, but I managed to put up some pretty good times for this point of the season, so I was pretty happy with that aspect of my races today.”

By the end of the first nine events, two more freshmen came out on top: Katis and Kyle McIntee. The former gained his second win of the night in the 100-yard breaststroke, whereas the latter won in the 200-yard butterfly, coming in with times of 56.38 and 1:51.52, respectively.

Not to be outshone, the Crimson sophomores also added two more victories, all before the Bears (0-4) managed to nab a first-place finish. In the 50-yard freestyle, Chris Satterthwaite won with a meet-best 21.16. But Satterthwaite’s win was a close one, as classmates Oliver Lee and Brophy were within three hundredths of a second.

The next sophomore win came from Brophy, who clocked in at 46.54 in the 100-yard freestyle.

“I got up and just raced, not worrying about times or any of that.” Brophy said. “I just wanted to get some good racing in and have fun with it. I usually swim better when I’m just trying to have fun instead of concentrating on times, and I think I definitely showed that.”

Rounding out Crimson victories in the first nine events, senior Rob Newell won the 100-yard backstroke in 51.40 seconds, and junior Michael Stanton came out on top in the 30-meter dive with 364.06 points. In that event, the top four highest scorers were all wearing Harvard colors.

It was only then that Brown clinched a race win. In the 200-yard backstroke, Bears freshman Alex Pascal grabbed first with a time of 1:57.60.

After Pascal’s victory, it was back to the Crimson highlight reel. Sophomore Jason Ting took the 200-yard breaststroke in dominating fashion, coming in over 2.5 seconds ahead of the next swimmer. In the next event, the 500-yard freestyle, it was sophomore Spenser Goodman who put in the winning time at 4:44.02. Goodman’s mark was over four seconds ahead of the next closest competitor and over 10 seconds ahead of the nearest Brown swimmer.

In the 100-yard butterfly, Newell, at 51.28, pulled out his second individual win of the night. The senior’s race was followed by freshman Mike Mosca’s victory at the one-meter dive with a score of 347.93 points.

Katis then followed his teammate’s lead and won yet another event, his third of the meet. This time it was the 400-yard IM, and his time of 3:57.77 led the three Crimson swimmers who placed in that race’s top three.

It was only in the final event of the night that Brown once again grabbed a first-place win. Clocking in a time of 3:10.67, Brown’s “A” Team won the 400-yard relay.

But the Bears’ fate had already been sealed by that point. The loss marked Brown’s worst defeat of the season thus far.

“I think our team is pretty focused right now,” Brophy said. “We are honing in on wrapping up our dual meet season well and going into Ivies focused and united as a team. From here we want to go up and win the Princeton and Yale meet and Ivies; whatever that requires we are ready and willing to do.”

—Staff writer Juliet Spies-Gans can be reached at jspiesgans@college.harvard.edu.