Women's Swimming and Diving Sweeps Brown and Penn

The Harvard women’s swimming and diving team encountered little choppy water this Saturday, as it built on its undefeated conference record in Providence.

The Crimson (6-1, 5-0 Ivy) took on both Brown (3-3, 1-3) and Penn (4-4, 3-4) in its first Ivy League meet of the new year, beating the Bears, 175-124 and the Quakers, 158-141.

Harvard came into the meet defending both its 2014 Ancient Eight championship and its unblemished conference record. However, having not raced a conference meet since November 2014, this meet marked a move from preparation to performance.

The meet also served as a bridge from the team’s challenging winter training to the high pressure meets that await as the season comes to a close: H-Y-P and Ivies.

“Training camp is really grueling and it’s nice that we can come back and compete at pretty close [to our best],” junior Danielle Lee said. “With a little more rest we’ll be able to perform really well at both H-Y-P and Ivies.”

Lee started off the meet with a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle. She later took first place in the 200 backstroke, while sophomores Marissa Cominelli and Maggie Chory, along with junior Kendall Crawford, gave the Crimson three more top-six finishes in the event.

A consistent top-three finisher, Lee attributes much of her success to the supportive environment created by her teammates.

“The cheers that we do get us really pumped up and [co-captain Stephanie Ferrell] does a really good job pep-talking us up before our individual events and our relays,” Lee said. “The atmosphere, the team cheers, and team support really help me to go the extra mile.”

Crawford and Chory competed in the 100 back as well, finishing fourth and sixth respectively. However, the top Harvard finish in this event came from freshman Kristina Li, who completed her laps in 56.47 seconds, beating out Penn’s Lauren Church by 0.12 seconds.

Another Crimson freshman proved victorious in the meet’s longest distance event—the 1000 free. Rookie Regan Kology touched the wall first, and she was followed by sophomore Ashlee Korsberg to give Harvard the top two places.

Korsberg took home another silver in the 400 individual medley, this time behind freshman Geordie Enoch. Enoch’s other performance of the day was a sixth place finish in the 200 butterfly.

“The freshmen have been pivotal in our success,” Ferrell said. “The team really feeds off of that excitement that the freshmen have. It’s always fun being a freshman and just putting yourself out there and seeing what you got. We’re really excited to watch them perform so well.”

But as the younger team members were making waves, various upperclassmen put up times worthy of the podium as well.

Ferrell finished first in the 100 breaststroke, nearly three full seconds ahead of the Quaker’s Sydney Tan. In the 200 breast, Ferrell, who has notched multiple first-place finishes in the event this year, was disqualified, and Penn swept the top three positions.

Another upperclassman notched a gold-medal finish in the 500 free, as junior Sherry Liu’s time of 4:57.31 prevented a second Quaker sweep.

Crimson divers finished the meet sweeping both events. In the three-meter competition, freshman Hannah Allchurch took first with a score of 304.10. Second went to classmate Jing Leung, who was followed by sophomore Elina Leiviska.

In the one-meter contest, Harvard took the top four spots. Leiviska finished first, followed by Allchurch, Leung, and senior Schuyler Moore.

Even with impressive individual performances and two more wins under its belt, the Crimson views this meet as just one more lap in the contest that is its season.

“We used this as the final stretch before the end,” Ferrell said. “We’re getting ready for that and using this meet as another stepping stone towards that end.”

—Staff writer Isabel DeLaura can be reached at idelaura@college.harvard.edu.