These are not the best of times for the Harvard men's swimming team.
If things seemed bad after the Crimson's 32-straight dual meet winning streak was snapped Friday at Navy, they got a whole lot worse Saturday at Columbia.
The aquamen lost their second straight meet of the year Saturday at Columbia's Uris Pool, as the Lions posted a 64-49 upset on a stunned Crimson squad.
Harvard, which in the last six years had dominated Eastern swimming as few other teams had dominated other sports, has now lost mode meets in this still-young season than it did in the last six years combined.
What the Crimson had done in those last six years included an amazing 58-1 record on en route to six straight Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming (EISL) dual meet championships, five consecutive Eastern Seaboard Championships and collegiate swimming's longest active winning streak, until Navy pulled the biggest streak attack since Pearl Harbor.
And furthermore, Harvard had never lost to Columbia, Ever.
But a shaved down, psyched up Columbia squad put the Crimson's quest for its seventh straight EISL title in serious danger, toppling the Crimson for the first time with several outstanding personal performances.
"They were swimming on a level far higher than we were," senior Mike Miao said last night.
Not that Harvard overlooked the Lions. If anything, the aquamen had overlooked Navy the day before in preparation for Columbia. Navy's shave--which allows a team to take off the excess hair that accounts for unwelcome excess surface area and along the way pick up a huge psychological lift--caught the Crimson offguard.
Columbia didn't.
"We knew they we were going to shave," Miao said of the Lions. "We knew they'd swim well and go all out for us."
That's what happens when you become a dynasty. "Other teams look at us," Miao adds, "and figure they have nothing to lose. So they shave and go all out for us."
That fact didn't used to bother the aquamen, though. Even as teams geared to knock off the powerful Harvard squad, the Crimson responded with clutch victories. In 10 years, Harvard has now dropped just five dual meets, including the last two.
"But once Harvard lost to Navy," says Columbia Coach Lon Galluzzi, "that Harvard mystique didn't seem so powerful. They're still as talented as always, but when a lot of freshmen realized Harvard could be beaten, they just went out there and did it."
By the time the final relay rolled around, Columbia, whose early-season shave hadn't worked against Harvard last season, had locked up the meet.
The Lions' one-two finish in the 200-yd. breaststroke just before the relay finished any hopes for Harvard, which found its way back into the most after falling behind early with several clutch first-place finishes from diver Karl Illig on the three-meter board, Dan Simkowitz in the 200-yd. breaststroke, Peter Egan in the 200-yd. butterfly, Courtney Roberts in the 1000-yd. freestyle, Miao in the 100-yd. freestyle and Bob Hrabchak in the 50-yd. freestyle.
As Galluzzi pointed out, the absence of All-American diver Dan Watson, who is sitting out this year as he begins final tryouts for the United States Olympic squad, has taken away several points from this year's Crimson squad. Despite Illig's top performances over the weekend, the aquamen lack the diving depth that often accounted for many second and third place finishes.
"Without the Watson points," Galluzzi said, "we felt we had a shot at them."
That shot proved fatal, leaving the Crimson 0-2 on the year and looking for the same secrets that kept them afloat.
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