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Rediscovering That Championship Feeling

Men's Swimming

Eleven members of the freshmen class have made their way onto the squad and most should be able to contribute immediately. Leading the Class of '91 is Scott Jaffe, a nationally-ranked breaststroker who can be successful at most anything. Jaffe may be asked to swim many events this year to give the Crimson additional depth.

The breststroker is the prefered race of many freshmen, as Jonathan Manson, Albert Wolf and Joey Zumpano are all specialists in those events. Their proficiency in the breaststroke has already been helpful to Harvard, as the squad has taken the top four places in the breaststroke race in a pair of meets last week.

Also starting their swimming careers at Harvard are Greg Tull, Paul Watson and Dan Hume. Tull is a sprinter who could challenge Kaplan's dominace, while Watson could emerge as the team's best backstroker. Hume gives the team greater depth in the butterfly events.

Diving continues to be a sore spot for Harvard. Junior Patrick Healy returns for his third year and should be improved. But the resignation of Diving Coach John Walker and the absence of any other divers spells trouble. With the changes in scoring, giving points to the first five finishers in all events, Harvard swimmers will be forced to make up for points lost in the diving competitions.

Harvard's first big test comes this weekend when the team travels to the University of Alabama for a dual-meet tournament. Eight teams from across the nation will compete in the tourney, giving the Crimson a way to compare its strengths with other top teams. Harvard swims against the University of Iowa in the first round.

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Following a Winter Break training trip, Harvard resumes its Ivy League competition, culminating in a dual-meet showdown with Princeton at Blodgett Pool February 6. The Crimson will then gear up for the Eastern Championships, held March 4-6 at Smith Swimming Center in Providence, R.I.

It is there that Harvard will try to redicover that championship feeling.

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