Women’s Swim and Dive Team Defeats Cornell and Dartmouth at Second Meet of the Season

Harvard’s women’s swimming and diving team came out with impressive results this past weekend, thoroughly defeating both Dartmouth and Cornell during a meet in Hanover, NH, on Saturday.

Winning its second meet of the semester, the Crimson elevated its record to 3-0 on the season, securing its second consecutive year of victories against both the Big Green and the Big Red.

Describing her team’s prowess, junior captain Isabella Alas noted that it all came down to having a fighting spirit.

“Everyone fought really hard, and that was really shown throughout the whole meet,” said Alas. “We didn't stop fighting till the end.”

The Costin Family Head Coach for Women’s Swimming and Diving, Amanda Kulik, stressed that the meet was “definitely a challenge” for her team.

The meet began with the women’s 3-meter diving, where three Harvard divers — senior Nina Janmyr, sophomore Samantha Holtz, and captain Tabitha Chen-Fiske — pulled out second, third, and fourth place, respectively.

“On three meters, Nina, Sam and Tabitha and Ennika went 2-3-4-5,” praised Kulik. “There's just such a great fight from our women.”

What followed was Harvard’s first first-place win of the night, as the team raced to earn a six-millisecond lead over Cornell in the women’s 200-yard medley relay. The Crimson’s win in the event was thanks to a collaborative effort between senior Anya Mostek, freshman Aliana Marokovic, sophomore Kiley Wilhelm, and senior Sydney Lu.

The team’s success was spurred by the energy that kept the athletes active and having fun throughout the various events.

Junior captain Stephanie Iannaccone noted that the team aims to focus on “keeping that energy and keeping it fun.” Coach Kulik echoed Iannaccone’s sentiments.

“The sound was reverberating,” said Kulik, while describing the meet’s enthusiastic atmosphere. “You couldn’t hear the person announcing names at some point.”

Following Harvard’s win in the medley relay, freshman Carolina Daher pulled out a first-place finish in the women’s 1000-yard freestyle, beating out Dartmouth by two seconds and setting a new pool record time.

After a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle, the Crimson took home another first-place finish as Wilhelm won the 100-yard backstroke, with Mostek taking second place.

Iannaccone nabbed third place in the 100-yard breaststroke before senior Sydney Lu took her second first-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly. Freshman Hazel Mouhidin and sophomore Kenzie Padilla took second and fourth place, respectively, in the same race.

Following the 50-yard freestyle, where freshman Sarah Beckman earned third place, the team was halfway through the meet and was still close in score to Dartmouth.

“What was really exciting is at the half point, we were six points ahead of Dartmouth, and that’s not a lot in a dual meet,” explained Kulik. “So, the team really dug deep.”

In the ninth event of the meet, the one-meter diving, Harvard was successful in pulling a first and second place finish, earned by Janmyr and junior Christina Shi.

Lu then tallied her third straight win in the 100-yard freestyle, followed by Wilhelm taking 1st place in the 200-yard backstroke. Wilhelm’s time of 1:57.0 also beat a pool record.

Other highlights from the meet included Iannacone earning second in the 200-yard breaststroke, and a tie between Harvard freshman Aliana Marakovic and sophomore Gabi Augustyn. Daher then took second place in the 500-meter freestyle.

Two larger successes came out of the next two events; Lu earned her fourth first-place finish of the meet in the 100-yard butterfly. Wilhelm then took home her second win of the afternoon in the 200-meter individual medley, beating a pool record set in 2010 with her 2:00:11 time.

The meet concluded with a third-place finish for the Crimson in the 200-yard freestyle relay, where Dartmouth and Cornell eeked out first and second place, respectively.

Chen-Fiske noted that the team’s results stemmed from “really, really consistent performances” that it had focused on in practices.

Following the results of this meet, Harvard looks forward to continuing its winning momentum in the rest of the season.

“We’re really excited to have some more away meets, a chance to travel together as a team,” said Chen-Fiske. “We have the longer Minnesota invite after Thanksgiving break, which is a really great opportunity for us to compete against different teams than we usually see.”

The Crimson will travel next to New York this upcoming weekend to face off against Columbia on Friday, November 21st.

Alas noted that the team’s successful efforts this weekend were truly the result of the team’s determination.

“We really attacked every race, and that was really shown through on the boards and in the pool,” said the junior.