When does pre-season end?

For the Harvard men's swimming team, the season officially began over a week ago, but so far the Crimson is still waiting to break a sweat. And though it may have been steamy in Blodgett Pool yesterday, Navy certainly didn't do anything to help Harvard get its glands pumping.

The Crimson, defending champions of this coast, glided to an effortless, 202-98, victory over a well-rested but overmatched Navy, giving Harvard its third straight victory over a not-much-of-an-opponent-more-of-a-warm-up Eastern team.

"We weren't anticipating a whole lot of competition, but people swam really well," Tri-Captain Ed Owen said. "It was exciting that we were able to keep up our level. Psychologically, it was difficult. We got psyched up for a meet even after we had gone away [for Thanksgiving] and though we knew the level of competition wasn't high."

Harvard, currently ranked 22 in the country, might have had problems with psychology, but racing--that's another story. The Crimson continued to improve at the same steady rate and is now racing at a pace much faster than it was last season.

"We're really happy the way meets are going," said junior Sean Gouldson, who swam a very quick 200 backstroke (1:49.11). "We're swimming well. People are getting really good times. We want to keep going through the first half of this season, then have a good training trip and go into [the Princeton/Yale meets and Easterns] with a lot of momentum."

Looking to Future

Harvard certainly has good reason to look well into the future. So far it's been racing primarily against itself, and this week's lineup of races may be grueling (the team will have only two days of rest), but they're certainly nothing to worry (or sweat) about.

The Crimson faces Brown tomorrow and then hosts the Harvard Invitational against Syracuse and Villanova starting Thursday. The main test will be to keep up the steady progress the team has shown so far, without peaking too quickly.

"This invitational is the main focus of the year for unshaved times," Tri-Captain Stephen Root said. "There's no reason why we shouldn't swim at our fastest. We want to show where all our training is going".

Navy can tell you where Harvard's training has gone--right down the Midshipmen's throats.

Harvard took first place in 13 of 16 events, including 1-2-3 finishes in the 200 butterfly, 200 backstroke, 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle. In the 500 freestyle, Navy's Eric Winter led for most of the rest, before a trio of Harvard swimmers--junior Dave Bandy, freshman Ben Swartout and freshman Jeff Marks--overtook him. Bandy touched out his teammates to finish in 4:41.14.

Rising Frosh

Despite a third place finish in that 500 freestyle race, Marks continued to stake his claim as one of the fastest swimmers in his class of talented freshmen. Marks won the 1000 freestyle in 9:36.06.

"The freshmen have come in and worked real hard," Marks said. "[The 1000 freestyle] was my lifetime best by a bit. I was real pleased. I was hoping to swim well, but this is a little faster than I had planned."

Unexpectedly fast times seem to be the story for the rest of the Crimson as well. Both seniors Kris Singleton and Dave Knauert recorded their fastest unshaved times. Singleton placed third in the 100 and 200 fly, swimming in 52.49 and 1:57.17, while Tri-Captain Knauert won the 100 backstroke in 52.35.

Sophomore Jan Esway recorded the fastest 100 freestyle of any Harvard swimmer this season with 46.71. Junior Richard Ou swam a speedy 58.26 in the 100 backstroke, an event he continues to dominate. And Mike Sullivan put in a strong performance for a freshman with his 1:58.43 in the 200 IM (second place).

"People as rule are swimming some of the best times of their lives unshaved," Owen said. "We're all really excited. Based on our last two meets, it's really consistent with how we've been doing all season."

Ain't that the truth.